[OPEN] moving day!

[watermemory]

Who ⬤ Minato, Eiichi, and anyone
What ⬤ July substories in a get-along “shirt” / knb camera footage / catchall post.
When ⬤ July to August because it’s already middle of the month orz
Where ⬤ Various
Content Warnings ⬤ Substory 2 has the naked guy? The camera threads may discuss elements of violence and horror imagery.

[ Around one of the Sutoku residential buildings, it’s a nice peaceful morning broken by the sound of an argument. What else is new. ]

[ The excuse for Minato’s presence this time (not that anyone in this building is buying it now) is he’s helping Tama with packing and moving. It’s a relatable plight to many others, honestly, after their residences were made uninhabitable after the cursed month. The arrival of their mutual friend Eiichi has only made the move that much more urgent. ]

[ That isn’t the cause of the argument. But it might be easy to guess, considering that for the rest of the day, Minato and Eiichi can be found together. Quite… literally together. Is… that a set of handcuffs…? ]

[ The sight of them makes for an odd mirrored effect, given their similar appearances. The only real difference is their expressions: Minato looks distinctly harassed, Eiichi has a permanent scowl — they do seem to be agreed on one thing: Doggedly go on with their day as if there is nothing weird about the situation. ]

(( All Substory logs below are duo threads with both Minato and Eiichi handcuffed together and trying to play it cool. Though if you’d rather only tag one or the other, it can be handwaved that they’d gotten out of this daft predicament at some point. If there’s something else you have in mind, hit us up or pm watermemory / frogmarched. ))

Comments

SUBSTORY #2: Jigokucho’s Mr. Libido

[watermemory]

[ Location: A street bordering Tamamo and Shuten territories. ]

[ With the recent declaration of truce, streets like these are less fraught than they’ve been for months. There’s still unease when representatives of either clan cross paths, and yet… it’s almost peaceful? ]

[ Anyway, it means that Eiichi and Minato have been able to cross this neighbourhood on their errands without much trouble… besides the part where when they pass by an “adult novelties” shop and Eiichi serenely points out increasingly-more-outrageous items for sale and their merits and flaws thereof, as Minato tries not to slow down his pace without actually dragging Eiichi by the wrist away from the shopfront. ]

[ Of course, it all goes to hell when the dancer in his tennis shoes and tighty-whiteys leaps out from the goddamned shop’s entranceway and starts boogeying and listing his own favourite products. What the fuck. What the fuck. ]

[empression]

Ah, there you are! Please stop!! You're causing people distress!

[ And here comes Haru, who is like. Not wearing tennis shoes and tighty-whiteys, but is running towards the dancer because sir this is inappropriate?? ]

[watermemory]

[ He's in hell. Like. Minato already knew that. But this is some extra special facet of one of the Narakas that he'd previously been unaware of. Trapped with his somehow-best-friend, confronted with an obscene stranger, and now someone from their faction is here to witness it. If he wasn't tethered to Eiichi right now he would simply walk into the Sanzu, and take his chances with whatever mythical serpents lay in the depths. ]

S-she's right, we aren't buying anything, this is some misunderstanding, we'll just go...

[ The dancer's smile of beatific innocence doesn't budge, as he says, nonsense, every man needs help keeping his mojo up! ]

[inspiteful]

[ Sometimes you're on the way back from Tamamo turf and then you run into...this...scene.

Skylark has the face of someone who has many questions that he isn't sure he wants answers to. ]

Uh, sir...

[ Oh, nope, the dancer sure isn't listening. ]

[watermemory]

[ For a second Minato thinks Tama has run into him and Eiichi which would just complete the cycle of awful happening right now, but unless Tamamori has recently dyed his hair... which wouldn't be entirely out of the question... no, no, this teenager isn't him. ]

[ Though Skylark's presence does make for a convenient line of attack: ]

Eh, c'mon, say what you want to adults, but not in front of a kid...!

[ The dancer merrily ignores this too, pointing out a sign for Hot Shot's Secret Formula, guaranteed to stoke your fires back up! ]

SUBSTORY #3: It’s Very Time Consuming

[watermemory]

[ Location: The plaza outside Tama’s Sutoku apartment building. ]

[ It’s not clear when the diamond watch turned up in the midst of their packing. If it had been up to Minato, he’d have asked around the nearby shops for recycled cardboard boxes they’d have otherwise thrown out, which would have been an easy explanation for the watch being accidentally left in one of them... But with Eiichi’s mysophobia, using something that counts as “garbage” wouldn’t have been a good idea. ]

[ Regardless, there’s a spirited discussion going on where Minato is saying that they should probably go return the watch to its rightful owner, while Eiichi is saying the “diamonds” are more likely worthless glass, and they might as well toss it and forget about it. After all, if the original owner cared that much, they’d have kept a closer eye on it, or if they were rich enough to buy something so ostentatious, they can easily replace it. It’s almost like they’ve forgotten they’re still cuffed together… ]

[ Alternately: Unbeknownst to either of them, Minato’s cat is a few paces behind them, eyes fixed on the sparkly watch dangling from Minato’s fingertips. If nobody intercepts, it’s getting ready to pounce…!]

[pathofsacrifice]

[ Artemy steps out of the apartment building. He is surprised to see two faces that he recognizes and one that he does not. But there is a closeness that he notes; it seems yet another friend from their "world" has come to this place.

His expression softens -- as much as a harsh face such as his can -- in greeting, before he catches what it is that they're talking about, and frowns. He begins to pale as it seems like the young men seem to be quite drawn to "cursed items."

He only became aware of the strange story when he visited a pawnshop to sell some garbage that he happened to come across. Speaking appearances, as always, Artemy looks a little worse for wear. His hands stained with a dark copper color that is probably blood; his clothes a little ragged from his traipsing around the alleyways and other places to avoid fights.

Dusting himself off, he decides to first introduce himself before being the bearer of bad news. ]

A new friend seems to have joined you two. [ He greets them and then to the unfamiliar face, he says: ] I hope you are settling in all right.

i am so sorry for everything

[frogmarched]

[Of course, Eiichi didn't dare touch the damn piece of garbage; he was already wearing his gloves for all the moving, but considering they had no idea where it came from and no idea how to track down whatever sad rube lost the damn thing, Minakami, he wasn't taking any chances.

Maybe that would end up being a good thing, because there was nothing that could've prepared him for the sight of a man covered in dried blood and smelling of garbage. Eiichi looks visually started, pulling his hands together as if to defend himself (and dragging Minato's hand with him), looking at Artemy with a vacant stare of horror.]

W-- What the hell is...?! [He's pretty sure he's had nightmares about this sort of thing?] Who the hell walks around covered in dried blood and dirt and garbage...?! Even your clothes are ugly and tattered. Can't you even clean yourself up?!

[Sorry Artemy, no amount of trying to look less harsh could've prepared him for this. He looks at Minato, an upset scowl on his face.] You know this person?!

crawls in here 5 bajillion years late

[tonguecutter]

[ Exiting the Sutoku apartment complex and passing by the plaza with a small bag in one hand and a sheathed sword slung around her waist like any very typical, absolutely normal kid, Beni-Enma spots Minato, just the person she's looking for... ]

Oh, Mina...

[ ...with someone in tow, who she does not recognize. However, they seem close enough to be cuffed together(?), and apparently in the midst of a heated argument about something that is most decidedly not their current predicament, which only serves to confuse her a little further. ]

...to?

you aren't late shhhhhh

[watermemory]

It won't take that long-- [ Minato halts midsentence, at the familiar sight of the sparrow oni. ] Beni-Enma!

[ Instead of the terse, barely-held composure he'd had on the network, Minato looks and sounds more at ease, closer to the first time he'd met her -- fittingly, given it's practically the same place, too. ]

Ah... [ More at ease, besides the handcuffs on one hand, and the diamond-encrusted watch dangling from the other. Having someone he knows catching him in this stupid predicament is... not a nightmare he's had, but a new and exciting addition to the roster! ]

Do you know anyone in Sutoku who's lost something valuable? Eiichi and I found this, but we aren't sure what to do about it...

[ PLAY... COOL... ]

SUBSTORY #4: It’s In The Stars

[watermemory]

[ Location: Public transport :/ ]

[ Guess what you’ve gotta do if you’re moving, can’t drive, and you’re on too tight a budget to pay for a cab! You carry shit back and forth on public transit until you pray for death! The only saving grace is the old flat was too tiny for even a magpie like Tama to accumulate much stuff — not to mention that Eiichi threw out several things he deemed too storm-damaged or worthless (in his estimation) to bother taking. He’s helping. ]

[ Anyway. Between the ongoing roadwork and the city’s preparations for Tanabata underway, predictably, traffic has been diverted, making the buses run slower than usual to begin with. This seems like a normal jam… that goes on… until the bus driver gives up, opening the doors with a digital jingle to let people out if they’re tired of waiting. ]

[ In the bus, Minato awkwardly (one-handedly) shifts the box he’s carrying on his hip, as he cranes to see what’s wrong. There’s glitter on the road, and people milling around occupied with something… He wonders aloud if there was a crash. That would make sense, right? That makes more sense than folks holding up a busy road to collect sky candy drugs. ]

[ Either way, it’s not long before Eiichi responds to Minato’s wonderings by tugging him along by the increasingly-annoying chain holding them together, his own (slightly smaller) box tucked under his arm as he tries to push their way off the bus. If there was a crash they might as well go see it? Right?]

[hellborne]

[ well, you know, some people aren't that bothered by having to use public transportation. jack figures that they've seen far worse in london, and these pale in comparison to the omnibuses of their time.

that is, until they're stuck in what appears to be the worst traffic jam ever. similarly to minato, jack tries to crane their head to see what was happening, but as soon as he sees both eiichi and minato leaving...well, there really is no point in staying, is there?

with a sigh, jack goes behind them, watching the two of them-- wait, are they handcuffed together? ]

What did you two do? Break out of prison?

[frogmarched]

Hm? [Excuse you, are talking to them. That's rude and no one asked--

Eiichi only looks at Jack when they're at least off the bus, and not all crowded in the small aisle between seats. Though when he does, he smirks in a way that's laden with mischief. Or disdain? It could go either way with him.]

What would you do if we had? Are you gonna lock us away again, or turn us over to the Enma...?

[Listen this is the only fun he can get out of this stupid situation.]

OTHER: Tower Mission Follow-Up

[watermemory]

[ Location: A Shuten apartment, an internet cafe, or Like. Wherever ]
[ Minato specific ]

[ A part of Mina had just wanted to put the blood rain behind him. The stress and misery of those weeks, not to mention some… personal revelations that had occurred during the storm, had left him just wanting to leave the mystery for someone else to solve. He’d done his due diligence, and had a frightening close call for his troubles. Then came the Enma’s bewildering public statement… ]

[ He doesn’t know. He’d still rather quietly hide away, particularly given the press were hounding the Lost Souls involved with the tower breach (both the teams and the ones who developed the incense). But a sobering conversation with Cloud has settled one thing: Even if he doesn’t know what to do about both their camera recordings, with its glimpse of the “mastermind" (Haniyasu?) and the revelation about the soldiers at the Night Parade, it at least needs to go to someone who can do something. ]

[ So either he’s been… quietly reaching out, or you’ve come to find him directly despite him keeping a low profile. Either you’re contacting him via the network (the post of the assigned teams was public, after all), or meeting him at his new apartment (it’s still pretty bare, everything’s still in boxes, but there’s some basic furnishing, including a low table with a cat sleeping on top), or convening at an internet cafe (mostly empty at this time of day, though there’s a few people gaming on the other side of the room, the combat bleep-bloops and electronic music loud enough that it’s coming through their headphones) to access a computer. Does he know how to use a PC yet, absolutely not, but he’s trying. ]

[ ((For ref: The contents of the video can be referenced from: (1. the tower event thread) (2. the ooc followup with some mod responses) -- the kappa have not cleaned up the footage yet. )) ]

eyyyy

[kikuichi]

[After finally getting around to contacting someone in the tower teams, Norimune eventually made arrangements to meet Minato Suizenji at the apartment. It's something he's been meaning to do, but things got busy. But now, he can finally get access to information.

Knock, knock, who's behind the door? It's a friendly looking blond swordsman.]

Hello, is Minato Suizenji in? This is Norimune.

[watermemory]

[ He'd deliberated on whether to agree to meet with Norimune -- he'd never met the man, after all. But the Lost Souls with the Enma had suffered just as much as the other factions during the storm, and someone who actually worked there might have greater insight -- or at least greater pull to do something. ]

[ So Minato had agreed, and he answers the door promptly enough (at least, when he sees it's not a reporter). ]

Inspector Norimune? I hope that's the correct term of address. Please, come in.

[ He backs up to let the man in; it's just him in the flat today, give or take the cat. ] Ah... is everything alright with the Department? I noticed the press were getting quite aggressive for a while there.

*teleports behind you*

[metafictions]

[At exactly five minutes to when Kamui is supposed to stop by Mina's new apartment, a blinding white light bursts like a flash bang... inside his bathroom. And although there's no real noise with the initial impact itself, it does hit half a second later, like thunder after lightning. If the thunder were a yelp of surprise, a clatter of items being knocked over, and the thud of a body unceremoniously hitting the ground.

So uh. Apparently, it takes a bit to get back up to speed when you haven't used your teleportation powers in a hot second. Who knew.

Whenever Mina's brave enough to open the door, Kamui's upside down on the floor with his knees dangling inside the tub-- unharmed, but in need of being put right-side up again. He clutches a battered, second-hand laptop in his arms. Breathlessly:]

Mina-san! Sorry. Precise jumps are more difficult for me now. Hello.

[watermemory]

[ There's a yelp and the sound of water splashing from the kitchenette. Minato drops the (not electric, ty) kettle he was filling in the sink, running to the bathroom in a mad dash, only stopping to grab a certain something on the way. The cat rockets past his ankles in the opposite direction, not stopping until it's hidden behind one of the towers of cardboard boxes. It's probably easy to assume that for the duration, the only sight of Nana the cat is his ears poking balefully out from inside the topmost box. ]

[ So uh. When Mina bursts into the bathroom, he's dropped into a combat stance, about to draw his sword at his hip. Fortunately, he freezes the moment he recognizes the home invader, even upside down. ]

...Kamui? [ Dropping the honourifics in the heat of the moment, even if he doesn't drop the stance just yet. ] What are you doing in the tub?

[worldbent]

Suizenji-san.

[Matoba greets the other man silkily, bowing his head as he stands at the entrance to their new apartment. Gone is the cooing cat-otaku of the festival; now, he is all business once more.]

[(You know, unless Nana is.. around.....)]

Mizumori-san informed me that you are in possession of raw footage of the attack on the Tower. Strife-san is still working on getting our partners in the kappa clan to get the basement footage in a better state, but I thought it prudent to lay my eyes upon it as quickly as possible.

May I? [He gestures towards the inside.]

hope this is okay!

[himbosupreme]

[Cain's coming to visit Minato at his new apartment, both to give a sort of housewarming gift as well as ask more how any investigation was going. All the departments needed to work together!

Though, he was hoping that his gift of chicken skewers was accepted, since he didn't actually...know what Minato or anyone who lived with him liked to eat. But he's here now, knocking on the door.]

Hey, Minato! It's Cain.

setting our thread at an internet cafe!

[baofeng]

(ooc: will be slow on tags at the moment, thank you for bearing with me!)

[Yizhi figures that Minakami might not be ready to host acquaintances in his house after the blood rain- he knows his place isn’t fit for visitors- so he suggests instead for them to meet at an internet cafe.

There’s a secondary benefit to that, which is that he can find one with video-editing software on some of its computers. At the agreed-on meeting time Yizhi is already seated at one of the terminals, wearing one earpiece in, clicking around a video-editing interface. You know how teens pick up coding in an afternoon because they suddenly want to add a hello kitty gif to their tumblr theme? Yeah. He’s speedrunning the native program’s Helltube tutorials.

He’s a little distracted, so hopefully Minakami doesn’t mind getting his attention.]

OTHER: Wildcard

[watermemory]

hello i am wildcard, complete with the return to prose over brackets

[fuckdogramagra]

The entire time Minakami and Kawase had been transporting their moving boxes to the new apartment, Tama had been dutifully trying to sort through their things, and keep Natsu-not-Nana from escaping. Well, 'sort' was maybe overgenerous; they were certainly where they belonged, and actually organized (kitchen supplies all near the sink and countertop, dining stuff on the low table that had been transferred already, their toiletries in the bathroom, and clothes all in the "bedroom" loft space because it was free) but he'd also been carefully, panickedly, searching through them for a stupid little key.

Honestly, he'd thought the damn thing was in his coinpurse, hence his initial pride; going as far as to make breakfast in an attempt to smugly wake the pair up sooner. That quickly turned to awkward embarrassment, when he went for his gamaguchi and felt around, and...quickly claimed he wasn't satisfied yet, and the two needed to get along better anyway, and maybe they'd get to spend quality time together while moving the boxes! Which, he'd maybe forgotten was that same morning, and not the day after!

...both of them knew he'd misplaced the key, of course. Tama wasn't stupid, and neither were they. But he was hell bent on trying to find the damn thing before the pair got back again. It was almost dinner time, and this whole charade had gone on long enough- but, he didn't even get the satisfaction of finding it, in the end.

He heard the telltale sound of something metal sliding across the new floors, and assuming it was Natsu-chan batting around a yen coin or something like usual, Tama turned around halfways to try and get it away from the cat- only to realize that it was not a coin at all. The ensuing chaos had to be cut due to broadcast censorship, but be assured their apartment's new neighbors would quickly learn the new tenants were...perfectly well-adjusted people.

It was in his defeated looking victory, hand splayed flat on the floor to splat the key to the surface, glasses halfway across the room, hakama rucked up enough to be indecent (to Tama, anyway), with Natsume biting at some of the tilted and split-open cardboard box flaps...that the door clicked open again.

CLOSED: Kawase | the community clinic

[watermemory]

He's a little late for his shift. Minakami doesn't run, always mindful of the secretive nature of the clinic, though he takes stairs three at a time and is moving more purposefully than if he were simply walking along in thoughtful silence.

There's a fine layer of dust on his hair and clothes, from hanging around a construction site. At the start of the month, there'd been an ushi oni who'd asked for help fixing his storm-destroyed bar, and Minakami had offered to redirect some of Shuten's reconstruction efforts his way. It'd gone well, until an ugly fight had broken out between the ushi oni and his shinchu employee; something about who really was at fault for the damages. Minakami had tried to step in, only for the oni to throw his keys at Mina and stomp off. The shinchu had only rolled their (segmented) eyes, with no apparent argument to... leaving Mina in charge.

For lack of a better plan, he'd taken the keys, said he'd figure something out, and fled.

Still mulling over this, he arrives at the back entrance of the clinic, shutting the door gently behind him. There's the distant strains of music from the radio, but not much else -- if there's any patients in, they're being quiet, a welcome change from his morning.

He hangs his shoulder bag up on a hook, taking out two parcels he'd picked up on the way -- one of medical supplies of dubious provenance, one snacks and drinks destined for the employee fridge -- ducking into the main room:

"Hello, sorry I'm late..."

what a perfectly nice and normal top level

[frogmarched]

Kawase had been there since the morning, today; the clinic wasn't that busy today, which was apparently a relief after the entirety of June. There had been one or two people that showed up, he wagered this was the kind of city where more trouble happened at night, anyway.

But Kawase was the only one in the main room, for now, sitting at the meager receptionist's desk with his nose buried in paperwork. Emily and Mikotoba were both helping people in the back, leaving him with unfortunately free reign of the foyer. Though at least here he actually made an effort not to be so callous.

He only glances up for a moment, when he hears a voice distinctly belonging to Minakami speak up from the doorway, before quickly lowering his eyes again to finish whatever he was in the middle of writing. "Ah, you're here to be the errand boy today?" Well, okay, nothing was going to stop him from still being rude to Minakami and Tamamori.

"Dyer-sensei's patching someone up right now in the back, if you want to talk to her. Though if I were you, I'd wait until she was done." He says, sounding sinister for no reason, as was his wont.

He finishes whatever sentence he was on to look up at Minakami properly. And suddenly, in a quite literal blink of his eyes, the dark, warm color of his irises disappears. When he opens them, they're suddenly shining with that bright, intense blue... Though Kawase himself doesn't even notice.