jigokulogs | [ OPEN ] sunrise, sunset

Entry tags:

[ OPEN ] sunrise, sunset

Who ⬤ Kim Kitsuragi & YOU
What ⬤ March substories (night parade & babysitting bad trips) & more!
When ⬤ Throughout March
Where ⬤ Throughout Jigoku-cho
Content Warnings ⬤ Drug use for the applicable substory, otherwise n/a

a. high definition.

[ When Kim notices people exiting the drug testing location looking decidedly worse for wear, his first instinct is to simply ignore them. They knew what they signed up for, did so willingly, and evidently did so without having the contingency of planning for a friend to accompany them and keep them safe afterwards. He stands off to the side for a frankly unconsciable amount of time, reasoning that some good samaritan will choose to be helpful. It doesn't have to be him. He's done enough of babysitting people on unadvisable drug trips for an entire lifetime, and he's not keen on repeating the experience.

Except it quickly becomes clear that nobody else is going to step in, even when he's given one or two passer-bys a hopeful glance. Whether it's the blindness, hallucinations, or general revelry that influences people to make terrible decisions, participants in the study are going to wind up being a danger to themselves or others, Kim decides, and reluctantly approaches one of them. ]

Khm. Excuse me. Are you all right?

[ He knows the answer to that question. It's no, because agreeing to be the guinea pig for unknown drugs as administered by some bizarre rabbit creatures is not something you do when you're all right, but he makes the executive decision to err on the side of politeness anyway. ]

b. night parade.

i. decorating.

[ Assisting with the parade seems like an easy way of currying favour with his superiors and to at least put on the pretense of helping out, so Kim gladly accepts the task of hanging up the decorations. He'll be around to help hold ladders, move boxes from point A to point B, or toss a bottle of water to one of his fellow assistants who looks as though they've failed to hydrate through any of their hard labour.

He does, however, become more invested in it than he specifically means to as he stands back, hands tucked neatly behind him, and scrutinizes one of the stalls' decorations, in a very interesting colour scheme. ]

No. I'm sorry, this needs to come down. These colours are... [ There is a polite way of putting this. ] ...very ugly.

ii. eyes needed.

[ Kim, having been deemed a very responsible looking man (probably because he's one of the older people here, he thinks with a sigh), has been tasked with sorting the fireworks and putting them in appropriate storage. Some need to be stored at certain temperatures to maintain the brilliance of their colours, and others need to be put under lock and key in a nearby storage unit because in the wrong hands, they have the capacity to do an awful lot of damage.

Which is fine. Kim is more than capable of handling this. Only he's supposed to be reading the criminally tiny fine print along the sides of the tubes. He holds them away from his face as far as possible in a desperate bid to translate it, but to no avail. He could rely on guesswork, but...

Reluctantly, he turns to one of his fellows, roped into helping with the parade as well. ] Can you make this out?

[ He's secretly hoping the answer is no, which is a possibility. It would be less embarrassing that way. ]
c. sutoku district & housing.

[ Otherwise, Kim can be found wandering around what he's been told is his new home, pausing occasionally to look at the huge, flashy arcades, the blindingly bright department stores, or perhaps dwelling a little too long on one of the vehicles parked along the side of the road. Shopping isn't the most exciting thing, perhaps, but Kim has plenty he needs to get with his first paycheck: groceries (largely frozen and canned foods, specialty-made for the consummate bachelor), a first-aid kit, cigarettes and toiletries, instant coffee, and a pitstop where he inspects a truly tragic looking pot of mint planted in ruinously dry soil.

By the end of the evening, he can be found on the balcony of the long line of depressing apartments that all of the newcomers have been put into, staring out at the night sky with a cigarette dangling from his fingers and a convenience store bag filled with premade food hanging off the crook of his elbow. He's willing to share, if interest is shown -- a cigarette for the adults, or a an extra onigiri for the kids. If he's going to eat a depressing late-night dinner standing out here, he may as well have some company. ]

d. wildcard.

[ want something else? I'd love to make a starter for you! just hit me up at my ooc comment here and we'll figure something out. ]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Strength isn't worth all of that, Kim privately thinks. What's the use of strength if it comes only from the ability to evade that which chases you? Surely there are better, less traumatic ways of training your skills, even if the youths of his Clan wouldn't have as strong a motivation as not losing their eyes. But he doesn't voice this thought. What good would it do anyway? While strength must be nice, the true reason for hiding from them must be because they don't want to lose their eye. Who would? Kim's barely getting by with two of them. ]

But you are no longer in a human society, where ayakishi are the intruders, yes? Now, you're in their territory. [ He glances around them, at all of the various demons that surround them. He wishes that they weren't in their territory, really. Wouldn't it be nice if they were surrounded with only other Lost Souls? Sure, they'd all be the sorts of assholes that got sent to Hell in the first place - assuming, of course, that that's true - but at least Kim knows how to deal with thieves, murderers and knaves. That hopping umbrella creature? He can't deal with that.

He lets out a breath, pinning a decoration up on the stall. ]

Ah, but think nothing of it. I wasn't worried about that. [ Maybe he should be, but even in this place, it seems too distant of a fantasy for him to even feel real concern about. ] I suspect they'd want little to do with me anyway. I've got nothing to offer them.

[ No burning hatred, no contracts, no particular supernatural skills. He doubts anyone would look at him twice. He's just normal. As he likes it. ]

So I am, [Matoba agrees, cheerfully.] Against my will, in the service of one of them. Well, I can't say it's entirely a bad deal. I have been offered something very appealing.

[Matoba gets to work on another decoration. They insisted on changing the stall up, so it only makes sense for them to be the ones taking charge of remaking them, right? That much, at least, Matoba feels responsible towards.]

...I wonder about that, [Matoba comments. The monster was not particularly concerned what objects got in its way, people included. It was less about being targeted and more about being collateral... But that aside, even as one brought here in the service of an ayakashi clan, what purpose did this man serve?] Kim-san, surely you must have some secret talents that you're not telling me of, haha.

[ The guardrail is ignored on her part, as Aerith hops down two steps of stairs and then begins a light jog down the rest. She's familiar with the place, sure, but more than that, she's just eager to jump into it. ]

A dress shop, if you can believe it! But she has really nice fabrics and sells those mostly. Right now, I think I could net us some good prices. [ Twisting at the hip a little, she beams. ]

Dropping is very unbecoming, anyway.

[ Ahem. When she swings open the door at the bottom, a flood of light fills the hallway. It's old, dirty, and beaten up, with a hole high up in the ceiling. Exposed foundation is crumbling, but inside...

Is a giant spider-woman, with many, many eyes. Within her claws is a glimmering pale pink fabric, layered over a sheer yard of a spring green netted fabric, and she looks toward the pair with a narrowed gaze. "I told you to knock," she says, and Aerith shrugs before gesturing out toward the shop. It's not particularly large, but well-lit with walls lined up with yards and yards of fabric rolls of all sorts of colors and sorts.

A few mannequins are there, of course. What's on them is hardly of interest to Aerith, though. ]

Well, Mr. Kitsuragi, here it is. Koganegumo's treasure trove. Anything you could want, in any color you can imagine is your's... for a price.

[ She'll put it on her tab. It's fine. ] What're you feeling?

Huh, really? I would've thought more people knew each other, but...ah, I guess we'll see.

[they are both getting headaches.]

One of them is a friend, so we talked it over a bit; he wants something for his family out of his contract, but I don't think he'd want me telling others about it more than that. The other two are, ah. We are not. Allies. Though one of them is in Sutoku too, so we'll have to make some arrangement eventually.

Contract talk hasn't really come up, with them. It's...honestly, whenever I think about the situation too hard I just want to go to the nearest bar until I stop.

Oh, you're one of those, huh?

[That could definitely be taken as extremely rude, but Dazai says it impassively, and he genuinely doesn't mean anything by it. He knows that not everybody is from a world like his, but that doesn't mean he can always be bothered to supply footnotes preemptively.]

Well, all things considered, it's stranger that so many of us are from similar worlds.

[He may have made half an effort at decorating over the past minute or so, but now that there's something more interesting to occupy his attention, he finds somewhere to sit - a railing along the road, perhaps - and turns his focus to Kim.]

What is it like, where you're from?

Secret talents...?

[ Kim gives it serious thought for a moment. He's an excellent detective. That's not a secret. He wouldn't be a detective if he wasn't good at his job, not with the disadvantages he's working with. Other than his job-related talents, what can he do, really? He has hobbies, of course, but he knows that in his hobbies, he in no way exceeds a professional. And they are all very ordinary hobbies. ]

Sorry to disappoint you, [ he says flatly, not displeased but certainly not convinced of Matoba's assumption, ] but I'm not in possession of any secret talents. If I were, I certainly wouldn't keep them a secret. I wouldn't benefit from that. [ He shrugs. ] I'm just normal.

Yes, yes, I'm one of those. Though I haven't met any more of us yet.

[ He would like to. It's an oddly lonely feeling, to know that you're at a loss when everyone else seems to know damn well what's going on. He tilts his head back, looking pensively at the decorations. ]

Not so different from where you are all from, I don't think. Otherwise most I've spoken to would have caught onto the fact earlier. But our culture, geographical structure, our history: those are all different. My world is an assembly of isolas, separated by the Pale. I am from a city called Revachol -- and the isola that appears to be most like your Japan goes by the name of Seol.

There are at least a few of you, though most I've met seem to be from worlds so different from here that they stand out more, too. [He shrugs.] Probably not a representative sample.

[Since the ones who, like Kim, don't stand out so much don't attract attention the same way, either.

While Dazai doesn't feel like interrogating Kim too much, he does still feel a small but genuine amount of interest regarding his world, and so he'll ask a little bit more.]

Seol? Sounds more like Korea. [He's hilarious. (He's not hilarious.)]

What is this Pale, then?

No? Not even ones you haven't yet discovered? Perhaps you're simply brimming with potential.

[Matoba grins to himself; he might be teasing the man, but it was all in good fun! He appreciated Kim's straight-forwardness, and he was easy to work with. Who knows... Maybe there was some secret potential the Daitengu was aware of. Only time would tell.]

"Normal" is only a matter of perception, too. To all these ayakashi, we are the strange ones, don't you think? Perhaps even moreso, since you are unfamiliar with their world.

...I do wonder about the lack of human spirits in this so-called 'afterlife'. You've yet to find any evidence of our state either, right, Kim-san?

[ Even Kim's legendary composure is occasionally tested and this is decidedly one of those times. He's not sure what he was expecting - for the warehouse to be completely empty? - but though he's grown more accustomed to the demons that walk among them than he had been on his first day, the sight of the spider-woman's glittering eyes darting around and landing on the two of them is enough to make his heart leap in his chest, not quite able to completely smother the cry rising in his throat as his hand instinctively darts to his holster. He's fine with little spiders. This? This is a thing out of his worst nightmares, like some Wirral creature he'd describe with relish come to horrible life, like the fantastical childhood stories he'd read under his covers, gleefully shivering at every horrible word.

He forces himself to relax - or at least look like he's relaxing - one muscle at a time, though he does spare a moment to give Aerith a particularly injured look, because he really would have liked a little more warning than that. Still, the hairs rising on the back of his neck and the way his exposed forearms pebble with goosebumps speak for themselves. Quickly, he bobs his head in greeting, deferring to good etiquette, as he always does when uncomfortable. It could be pointed out that he always has good etiquette, though, which is -- well, it is what it is. ]

Good evening, madam. We won't be long.

[ With every bit of willpower he has, he wrenches his eyes away from the spider-woman (god, he can see every hair on every one of her many legs like this) and towards the fabric, rubbing one hand across the back of his neck as though flicking away an imaginary house spider that had settled there. ]

Ah... pastels, perhaps? To go with the sweets.

[ Kim's lip curls in a slight smile. ]

Then I'd advise that you stop thinking about it. The last thing you need is to wind up in Hell with a drinking problem. Just the one problem is enough, I think.

[ He's joking. Probably? It can be hard to tell, with Kim. ]

I understand, though. Some things are better kept private -- and regardless of what they've offered us, it doesn't change our current situation. All we can do is make the best of it.

[he's already a massive alcoholic, but he also doesn't think of it as 'a drinking problem' so much as 'coping,' so. hooray for maladaptive mechanisms. he's got no booze here, though, so he raises the water bottle, tone a little dry]

Well, I'll toast to that, friend.

I wouldn't know.

[ He wouldn't, even if he knew anything about Earth's culture or geography. He's detached from his Seolite heritage and knows very little about it; this Japan looks like what he understands of Seol, but his rudimentary knowledge is characterized largely by how white people perceive it.

It's odd, to have had to explain the Pale multiple times to multiple people when he's always understood it as a fact of life as fundamental to reality as the ocean or the sky. ]

The Pale is a natural phenomenon of... antimatter, I suppose. Swaths of nothingness that only the most experienced are able to navigate through. Its dangers mean people seldom do.

[ Save for on airships, but that only means you're leaving your fate in the hands of a pilot. ]

It still seems strange to me that other worlds lack it.

I'm fourty-three years old, Matoba, [ he says wryly, an amused twist to the corner of his mouth. ] I doubt I'm going to find a new calling at this age.

[ He doesn't consider himself old. Rather, he considers himself to be a fourty-three year old with quite a bit of vitality to him. Nonetheless, he's always been set in his ways, and he has neither the time nor the money nor the energy to pursue entirely new skills.

He becomes more serious as Matoba does, though, tilting his head as he considers his words. He can't comment on the ayakishi feeling that he's the strange one - that may be the case in morphology, but he doubts he's strange in personality or pastimes - but the lack of presence of human spirits has given him great pause. To him, it's evidence that this isn't the afterlife at all. ]

But... yes, I have to agree with that. I was never a great believer in the afterlife, but one usually thinks that they'll be reunited with the dead there. Are we really to believe that out of the trillions of dead humans, we are the only ones who have made our way here? [ He shakes his head. ] Have you found any evidence that there are other cities like this one? The most I've been able to discover is that we simply can't exit the city.

Antimatter, huh...

[That's quite a thing to have to deal with - as Dazai knows from experience, though not for any geographical reasons. If it takes all kinds of people to make a world, then perhaps it's not so strange that it takes all kinds of worlds to make a universe.

That said, next time Dazai finds himself in another world, he'd rather it be his rainbow pill bug fantasy land, not hell.]

The worst we have is oceans and deserts, respectively. Two extremes...

Putting it like that, maybe some of your anti-matter is actually over-matter..?

[The opposite of anti-matter: too much matter! ... Okay, probably not, but it's an interesting idea. A world does need balance, after all.]

[ To be honest, Aerith thinks he's adorable like this. It's a little like bothering one of her mother's former co-workers, who handled the construction business much more like a mob family than anything. While Kogane gives them both a once over (and seems much more interested in Kim—), Aerith hums politely. A swath of pastels are unrolled towards them with a skittering sound; the spider-woman's unraveled several yards for their ease. A light yellow catches Aerith's eye, the little rainbow glitters reflecting back strongly despite how small they are.

She watches Kim out of the corner of her eye for a moment. As for the business' proprietor, she disappears into the back, mumbling something about how she'll be behind the counter. Thankfully, it's several feet away from the duo. ]

Sorry. [ Eventually, she offers him that, softly. She hopes the youkai does not hear them. ] You said you weren't bothered by spiders, right? But, to tell you the truth, even I got a little scared at first. But she's nice. Really, she is, I promise. Best prices around, too!

[ A beat. ]

Best seamstress in town, too, I think... You know, I bet she would make you something special for the parade if you ask?

[Faintly, Matoba ponders on that, an age he likely will never reach, but outwardly he just smiles.] I think you sell yourself short, Kim-san, but we'll agree to disagree.

[Perhaps the man undervalued his own skillset; he didn't seem like the type to undersell himself intentionally, but he was also in the Sutoku Alliance, so maybe it was giving too little credit towards his capability for deceit.]

[Matoba shakes his own head, tying off another decoration to hand off to Kim.] No, nor have I. In fact, from what I have gathered, everything outside of this city is a desolate wasteland which even spirits cannot subsist in.

...Hm, are you sure that is not your 'Pale'?

They have to do with everything.

[ The keys fumble in his hands before he finally opens the door. How lucky; it is his home! He's looks equally surprised at this discovery, but soon walks in. The space is barren, but well, that's the same for everyone.

Only a bed shoved against the side of the wall and little else in the way of furniture or decoration. Still, he breathes out a sigh of relief. ] I thought I was breaking into someone's house. [ Probably not the best thing to admit, but right, what was asked. ]

Good health is something we can't take for granted. It's why it should always be looked over... I wouldn't want them to be lost without anyone to look after them.

You asked me if I was scared by spiders, [ Kim hisses back, canting his voice low enough so that their sweet host can't hear him. His eyes dart towards her as he speaks, trying to get an impression as to whether or not she's in possession of supernatural hearing. She seems largely preoccupied, though, none of her eyes even glancing towards them. ] Like common pests. Not people. Warn me properly next time.

[ He's calmed himself - though he's still a little unnerved - but he's thrilled neither by the surprise, nor the fact that this woman will forever remember him as the fellow who reached for his gun as soon as he saw her. He calms shortly thereafter, though, nervous energy only present in the way he fruitlessly smooths down his hair, cowlicks springing back up almost immediately after he does so. ]

I suppose multiple hands would make seamstress easier, at any rate. Not that we have enough money to buy something of that calibre. [ Which makes him a little sad. He had amassed quite a nice wardrobe back home, through a lot of time and effort, and now he's stuck with the sort of cheap shit you can buy in bulk from the local department stores. Maybe one day, he'll be able to sample her wares for personal use. For now, however... ] But for the parade -- what did you have in mind?

No, no. I went to see it, the first week I arrived. I felt it was important for me to get a lay of the land, even for places I never want to journey to myself. I got as far as the outskirts, but...

[ He crosses his arms, thinking. It had looked like a desert, or what pictures he's seen of desertland in books and in movies back home. There must be more to it, he thinks. The city is well-populated, and filled with towers that fill the sky; why wouldn't they extend city bounds if that was all there was? What dangers are out there? And what lies beyond it?

Kim doesn't know, and he lacks the enterprising spirit to find out. He's cautious by nature, and he would prefer for others to take the risks and for himself to reap the benefits of that investigation. He would not call himself fearful by any measure - you cannot be fearful and still become a cop in Revachol - but he has the common sense to know when certain things should be avoided. ]

Frankly, the Pale is far more intimidating than what's out there. Pale is odourless, colourless -- nothingness, as far as the eye can see. But what's out there looked as though it's simply inhospitable land. There must be more to it, though I don't care to find out for myself.

Overmatter...?

[ Kim tries to think about what that would look like, but winds up shaking his head. Oceans and deserts are perfectly normal phenomena. The Pale is a natural phenomena, but far from normal, he thinks; if it were normal, it would not be so unpredictable, would not be encroaching on shrinking landmasses at such a worrying rate. ]

No, I don't think so. It has been taking over our landmasses. Once the Pale touches them, it turns into... nothing, I suppose you'd say. It's the enemy of matter. I'm not sure how I would characterize overmatter, but not like that.

[ He glances around them. Hell is less frightening than that, he has to admit. ]

Your world is fortunate, not to have anything like that.

[Dazai still has many questions, but they're largely theoretical, and he doesn't expect that Kim would be able to answer them. That's fine, really: it's none of Dazai's business in the end, and while he's a bit interested... that interest is already fading. He's never going to see that world, after all. What would learning about it accomplish in the end?]

That it is.

[Each world has its own problems, no doubt, but Dazai has to admit... while he has his misgivings about life in general, he sometimes feels pretty warm and fuzzy about his world. It created some interesting people, after all.]

... Though, if you put it that way, hell is fortunate, too! That's probably against some kind of cosmic law or other.

[Which Dazai likes, really.]

[Even after Kim's many descriptions of it, Matoba feels that he cannot grasp the true nature of what exactly the "Pale" was- it felt to him like how he imagined the Sightless must feel about describing ayakashi to them. Nothingness, yet containing everything. Something containing knowledge, but unaware.]

[He felt that he would like to see it someday.]

I haven't gone to look, [Matoba finally comments, although now he finds himself curious. Perhaps, when there is something to be..... seen, he will give it a try.] I wonder why it is that they speak in such hushed tones of the wastes. If it's just a desert, it shouldn't be anything that despairing.

There must be a power to it that not even the ayakashi who will dwell in places abandoned by humans will touch, if it's treated as something like capital punishment to be sent there.

My thoughts precisely. When I heard from the higher-ups that we weren't to go there I wondered if it could be a way to escape that they kept from us, but the more I heard from the citizens here, the less likely I thought it was.

[ He frowns, crossing his arms. The whole thing is quite discomforting. Not as discomforting as the Pale, but certainly a good reason to keep their heads down and act as good clanmembers, at least in public; in private, he's certain they can get away with at least shirking the more distasteful duties, or avoiding the feuds between the clans. ]

They seem afraid of it. It makes this city itself odd -- how is an entire city an oasis from what surrounds it? And what are really the dangers out there? They must go beyond the simple lack of food or water or shelter. If it didn't, I imagine they would have already expanded the city itself.

[ He glances over at Matoba. ]

Are there any particularly terrifying ayakishi you haven't seen here that could be lurking out there? What else could they possibly be so afraid of?

I... would agree with that, actually. I think most would find the Pale far more threatening than anything we've seen here, as of yet. This is just a city. A well-off city, at that.

[ He gestures around them, at the bustling metropolis, stores kept safely in business, booming industries of commerce and hospitality, entertainment and luxury and vice. He's never seen anything like it before. Revachol has plenty of vice to her name, back-alley drug deals and grimy bars and exotic dancers readily available for anyone who wishes to indulge, but it's not nearly this glamorous. ]

Several I've spoken to have voiced the same thing: that this place is nicer than their homes. I suppose that comes with co-existing with your would-be tormenters, yes? They hardly want to live in poor conditions to make us suffer.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 6 of 7

[ OPEN ] sunrise, sunset

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject