[ OPEN ] sunrise, sunset

[aceslow]

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. ]

Comments

[aceslow]

Nothing about how to store them...? Typical. [ He can only do so much when told to store them as is specifically appropriate, but at least he can use enough common sense to keep them somewhere cool, dark, and dry. He can also use enough common sense to ignore the little voice at the back of his mind (a long-neglected voice of mischief and fun, Kim's inner child having been properly squandered since he was a child) telling him that he ought to take a couple for himself on the basis of Fireworks Fun, Explosions Exciting. He regretfully puts the fireworks into their proper storage and, with a clean sweep of his pocketknife, seals the box with a couple layers of duct tape. ]

Thank you anyway. [ Reim has not escaped his notice while he's been working at this, however, bustling about and noting things down. It's the sort of thing that generally puts people on edge. It would probably put Kim on edge too if he wasn't so used to being the one holding the notebook. His eyes flick between the notebook and Reim's bespectaled face. ] Are you one of the workers in charge here?

[ In a purely managerial context, he means. He knows full well who's really in charge here, and they're nobody he intends to start a casual conversation with. ]

[allweather]

[Reim hums while he continues to dutifully jot down his notes, a yes-that-is-typical-and-wouldn't-you-know?-not-the-first-time-today kind of hum; very nuanced. It's mostly conveyed in the accompanying face he makes, exasperated even as he is, on some level, pleased to have more notes to take. Perhaps he will add to his list of Criticisms...

Anyway. His pen stills for just a beat, then,] I may as well be.

[Which is not a yes, so he isn't technically lying and no one actually in charge here can get mad at him for it.]

If you ask me, they could handle delineation of duties more appropriately... Not a soul asked me what my skills are when I arrived.

[Frankly, the way of handling the Lost Souls seems to just be, like - "uhh yeah go ahead over there," but who's keeping track. (Reim.)]

I've been keeping an eye open for difficulties.

[aceslow]

No, nobody asked me either. But they don't seem particularly bothered by what we do either, do they? We've been asked to help with preparations, but with no guidance or supervision.

[ Nothing's stopping anyone from fucking off and doing whatever they want all day. Kim had considered it, in fact, but then felt that it would behoove him to show himself as being helpful, capable, able to be left to his own devices and still do what needs to be done. He's not convinced that they're not all being watched, and it will be to his benefit that his superiors - whoever they are - feel that he can be trusted with some measure of freedom. Call him paranoid.

It seems that this fellow has very much the same feeling. Why not make yourself indispensable, in uncertain times? ]

And what difficulties have you encountered?

[allweather]

Oh, [and he brightens just a fraction, flipping to a totally different page in his little notebook. A kindred spirit? Or at least a willing ear.] I'm glad you asked.

[Like, really, he is. Ahem. He holds up the notebook just a little higher to read... a numbered list:]

One: Laziness. Two: Lack of guidance— [here he gives an acknowledging nod, very nice, well-spotted] —leading to a loss in productivity. Three: The aforementioned loss causing tasks to be repeated by necessity, leading to general frustration among both workers and those delegating tasks. Four: The general workers, hereafter 'W', starting arguments with the apparent leaders, hereafter 'L'...

[He can go on. He will continue to go on and read off some fun little arguments he recorded for posterity. Five, six...

Eventually:]

Broadly, it's been quite disastrous. [not really] We're holding this event together with string and hope.

[aceslow]

I wouldn't be so quick to blame laziness. None of us asked to be here, nor did anyone sign up for this particular task. There has to be some sort of motivation to get people to organize an event for a city they don't even know.

[ Kim would not define himself as a patriot in that that usually implies a certain type of person, and that certain type of person wouldn't want Kim in their city. But he does love his home with the sort of quiet fervor of one who never intended to leave. He has no such affection for this place, merely a sense that his life will go more smoothly if he decides to cooperate. He's not underneath the impression that others are - or should be - quite as pragmatic as he is.

Unlike his new acquaintance here, who has bureaucrat written all over him. ]

You don't seem to have any such reservations. What makes you so eager to help?

[ Kim has been diligently helping this entire time as well; if Reim saw him in passing, he would see that he has been an active, organized worker. He's just genuinely curious if this man's reasoning is similar to his own, or if he just feels the need to launch himself into a task because, like the rest of them, he really has nothing better to do. ]

[allweather]

[Reim hums, a sort of half-acknowledgement; he is going to blame laziness a little, there is some slacking, but alright — he concedes to circle "laziness" in his notes and add a little footnote that says "maybe." Fair enough.]

Well, they did ask. [He says it like it's a simple fact: he was asked to help, and so he is helping, but the precise tone of his voice implies obligation over eagerness. He was Asked, and sadly, his personal pride will not let him blow this off...

Or perhaps if he doesn't occupy himself with Tasks, his mind whirs into an anxiety likely to set him literally on fire, and so here he is. It could be either; the pinch between his eyebrows is uncertain at best.]

I prefer to be doing something, rather than sitting back... Frankly, I wouldn't know what to do with myself if we had unfettered run of the city.

[He shrugs. It is what it is and he doesn't particularly care about the backdrop when the opportunity to be doing something prevents itself. Whew.]

Now, when you refer to motivation, do you mean this task lacks compensation? [he's writing it down asap ofc] That is an oversight worth speaking to someone about.

[aceslow]

As far as I've been able to tell, [ Kim hastens to say, because they were given a sum of money when they arrived. Who's to say what it was for? Maybe they'll be getting a monthly stipend just for doing what they're told -- and perhaps it will be taken away from them if they don't behave. He doesn't know how this world works yet and, truth be told, it's highly irritating to him. Most of his abilities stem from having a good understanding of the world at a young age, what it demands from you, and what the cost of survival is, and to have to accommodate to something new such as this? Simply put, it's been a challenge.

For all the other man seems bureaucratic to a fault, it's nice to know that someone else is trying to figure it out in very much the same way that he is. To understand a culture and a people is a difficult task; it's much easier to first figure out the specifics of motivation, currency, employment, control. ]

It's all quite unclear. If it were up to me, I would have had some sort of meeting to get everyone on the same page. It appears that - [ he doesn't want to say this; he still feels a little mad saying it as factually as he is ] - everyone here is from different worlds. I can only assume that even our definitions of parades differ.

[ Revachol has never had much in the way of parades. But Kim can use his imagination. ]