[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

[baofeng]

[As Minakami draws near, Yizhi startles out of his thoughts; ripping one of his earpieces out and swiveling around in his chair in one sweeping movement. If he’d had the forethought to do it with more theatrics- perhaps with a plush animal in his lap- it would paint a rather villainous picture. But alas it was not to be.]

Sorry! I didn’t see you there.

[Now fully facing Minakami, it’s impossible for him to hide that his arm is still slung up from the Hit™. Despite that, Yizhi seems unbothered by meeting with a Shuten member so soon after that event. He flashes a polite smile before waving for Minakami to take the adjacent seat.]

Yes- or at least this is one of the programs. It’s not too hard to pick up for me, at least. Have you been doing well, Mr. Minakami?

[watermemory]

[ the only gif of Hikawa SMT3Nocturne's evil chair spin I can find is the version with the model replaced with the protagonist which is a goddamn shame. at least Yizhi is better dressed than Hikawa, and more dressed than poor Naoki. ]

I didn't mean to startle you! [ He does give an inquiring look at the sling, which was certainly not present at their last/first meeting. ] Were you injured during the storm? I hope it's not too bad.

You're farther along than me, then. A friend of mine has been teaching me about this technology, but it feels like such an uphill climb... [ He lowers himself on the chair, taking the camera from his bag to set on the table. ] Well enough. I was at the announcement of the truce -- I'm certainly glad of it, though clearly not everyone was.

[baofeng]

[Yeah, I couldn’t find a good chairspin gif either, what a travesty.

Yizhi pauses and looks at Minakami for a moment. But just before the moment gets long enough to be definitely Weird, he answers, so maybe he was just taking a while to think? It’s hard to remember things like recent severe injuries, you know.]

Yeah… I got into an accident during the blood rain. I’ll be cleared to have the bandages taken off this week, though, so don’t worry about me.

[And nothing he just said was technically a lie. Mr Assassin might not understand why Yizhi’s covering for him, but Yizhi’s really covering for himself- the last time he brought up the hit he was bombarded with questions, almost as bad as having guests over at New Year’s! If Minakami isn’t already in the know, Yizhi figures the man doesn’t need to know. He leans over to look at the camera with interest.]

Technology can be difficult to grasp if you’re unfamiliar, so it’s normal to struggle some. [Yizhi tries to sound reassuring, remembering that Zetian had also struggled with the tablet at first.] May I take the camera’s memory drive?

[watermemory]

[ Even if the silence doesn't draw on long, it's just enough for someone as naturally jittery like Minakami to feel antsy. Should he have not brought it up? He's aware, god knows, that things happened during the storm that people wouldn't want to talk about. There's a flicker of a troubled look in his eyes, before he tucks it away with an affirmative nod: ]

Glad to hear that, then. I broke my leg when I was little, I know how much of an inconvenience it all is.

[ He looks blank for a moment, but-- right, the... He fumbles with the little catch to release the memory card, talking to cover his awkwardness: ] You don't know the half of it. In my world, a normal camera -- not even for motion picture, just photography -- it'd be... I can't begin to calculate the exchange rate from my time to this. Hundreds of thousands of yen, probably more. I'd never have dared to ask for one, if they hadn't given us the tele- cellphones like they were nothing.

[baofeng]

Mm. [Yizhi nods.] I’m fortunate to have easy access to such technology back home, so I want to use my experience to help.

[He pulls out a card reader from his own bag and plugs it into the computer, then pops the memory card in. It’s good to be well-off enough to just Have things people need!]

I can’t promise I can fix the footage, but let’s give it a try and see what happens, yeah? [Eyes now on the desktop monitor, Yizhi loads the camera’s recordings using the reader and starts setting up a new video project on the editor. As he clicks through the loading screens another line of thought starts to form in his mind:]

By the way, do you know a lot of people in Shuten?

[Minakami is welcome to interrupt Yizhi to ask about what the computer’s doing, which might save himself from more Totally Not Awkward Inter-Clan Relationships. Namely, it’s occurred to Yizhi that he could obliquely ask about Hizen’s identity since Minakami doesn’t know what’s up.]

[watermemory]

You do? Have this stuff, I mean? I thought... Back home, people who dress like you are from, I don't know, a thousand years ago. [ He probably should have guessed, given how at ease Yizhi was with "modern" stuff both here or at the 7-11, but Tama had taken to the twenty-first century's conveniences like a duck to water, so... ] I guess I thought you'd adapted pretty fast.

Whatever can be done, I'm grateful; this is... [ Frankly, the software looks like complete fucking nonsense to him!! He probably has a mathlady.png expression as he squints at the UI, which means the question takes him by surprise. ]

--Eh? [ His instinct is to be evasive, though not out of suspicion. Minakami might know very well that he hardly fits into the 'hardened thugs and louche criminals' image, but he doesn't necessarily want to call attention to it. Being openly seen as a weak link is almost as undesirable as being Perceived (tm) at all. ]

I'm familiar with some of us, yes. Give or take the network anonymity. Has someone been bothering you?

[ Sure, there's the ceasefire, but the ink is still wet on that truce. ]

[baofeng]

A thousand years? That’s such a long time! [He just laughs incredulously at the idea that he’s from “a thousand years ago”- the multiverse, he can grasp, but a thousand years…. that’s such a long time.]

And no- I ran into someone during the blood rain. He was there when I got hurt, but he was like, “noo, you shouldn’t want to see me again, you’re Tamamo!” or something. Now that things are calmer between Shuten and Tamamo, I think it would be nice to see how he’s doing.

He’s slightly shorter than me, red eyes, speaks with a kind of rural accent? And he uses a sword.