jigokulogs | July 2022 Mini Event

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July 2022 Mini Event

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Tanabata is on the horizon, and the city seems to be recovering well from last month. But there's work to be done, and it's time to get to it...

1. SHUTEN CLAN - THE HOUSE ALWAYS WINS

With construction wrapping up, the new Shuten Clan casino will be opening soon. The casino has a number of new staff positions opening. It is a golden opportunity for anyone looking for a cash rich position. The money promised upon assignment to the underground casino is bound to be life-changing. Given the potentials in clientele, Toraguma is expecting the very best. Shutens are to report to the above ground Celestial Phoenix casino for their training.

They will be taught all the traditional casino fare, both Japanese and abroad. This includes being taught how to cheat at these games as well. For example:
Blackjack dealers will learn card count, and how to catch others doing the same.
Roulette attendants will learn both how and when to discreetly adjust the wheel.
Craps and Cee-lo dealers will learn how to feel for loaded dice and how to switch in the house's dice without notice.
Cee-lo dealers are also taught a specific way to line the dice tray to cause more lost throws.
Cho-Han dealers will learn how to distract players as they adjust the dice.
That's not all the Shutens will be learning. The clan needs skilled bouncers as well: people who can handle rowdy customers or haughty celestials. The more tenured Shutens will take up the roles of rude customers and challenge the trainees in how to handle them.

While not everyone will receive employment in the casino, they are all expected to participate in training. Shuten officers are expected to guide and oversee their juniors.

2. TAMAMO CLAN - CHARM SCHOOL

The Tamamo Clan also has preparations to make in anticipation of the underground's opening. The clan is opening their own brothel and cabaret, as well as providing food and drink services to the new Shuten casino.

All Tamamo Clan members must report for training at Mizukume. The lesson of the day is to use one's charisma to secure a huge payout. For example:
Hosts and hostesses will learn the art of schmoozing away clients' money.
Performers will learn more provocative means of soliciting large tips.
Oiran are taught the erotic arts; the perfect balance to both please a client, and how to leave them begging (and paying) for more. There's no technique Tenkohime finds too shameful. Money is power, and power is freedom.
Food service workers are provided master classes in mixology, plating, and how to serve high-profile clients without breaking a sweat.
Each role comes with its own set of pressures, but also the promise of great reward. Everyone is going to get rich, if everyone plays their part well.

Tenured Tamamo are asked to roleplay as clients for the benefit of those Lost Souls new to the work. While not everyone will be selected to work in the Underground, everyone is expected to train for it.

3. SUTOKU ALLIANCE - BLACK MARKETS AND BACK ALLEYS

After months of meetings, it's finally time for some real action. Sutoku Lieutenant Ryouma Sakamoto has made some pretty big commitments on the Alliance's behalf. His temerity comes from his earnest belief in the other Sutoku Lost Souls! No pressure, though!

To succeed, the Alliance must determine who is behind the current black market operation. Ryouma is relying on the Alliance's extensive information network and the hard work of the Lost Souls to make it happen.

This is the work that Ryouma mentioned when he welcomed the new arrivals recently.

This assignment is all about what you know. The Sutoku need to learn more about the competition, through any means necessary. The Alliance wants to know everything about what goods are moving around the city and who is moving it. Time to follow the money. You might even discover an unfulfilled niche in the market through your investigations.

The current influx of Stardust in the city is a great opportunity to investigate the existing dealers and supply lines. The Alliance is gathering Stardust just like everyone else, but it is becoming increasingly scarce as the factions vie for it. The value of this commodity is shooting up every day. Take some cash or other compelling bartering tools with you to grease the palms of a few shady dealers. Try to convince them to be more honest about their supply lines, beyond just the sparkly stuff. Stick the landing, and you might just be closing in on the heart of those shipping loopholes.

This is no easy undertaking. Creativity and tenacity will determine just how far you can go. Be careful not to be too obvious, the threat of unwanted attention will cause your sources to clam up.

4. DEPARTMENT OF THE ENMA - CRACK DOWNS

The Stardust's street presence has shifted naturally over the past few weeks: from an easy resource to simply scoop up in garbage bags overnight to a hot commodity. The street value of the material has increased considerably, and that means that the unaffiliated street gangs are greedy to get in on the action.

Enma officers are called upon to round up any black market dealers of Stardust and confiscate as much of their supply as they can find. This might just bring them into some direct conflict with the Sutoku Alliance members hoping to connect with market insiders. That's just how things boil out sometimes, though.

It is more important to the Department to get Stardust out of the hands of the black marketeers… and into their own lockers.

Officers are given permission to use any amount of force against individual actors, and members of the Law and Records Department are expected to draft up warrants (no matter how doctored) to obtain access to buildings they otherwise would never be allowed into; even Mizukume and the Arena. The Department's orders are clear: if it's not an approved market, shut it down.

This is in the name of maintaining Order, so get out there. Move at least in pairs, or you're likely to meet some serious resistance, and keep an eye out for the newbies.

5. ALL FACTIONS - LUNAR RABBIT RETURNS

It isn't just the factions, dealers, and petty gangs who are interested in the Stardust now that it's a premium item.

A familiar face has resurfaced: the mysterious gyokuto medicine woman and her army of white rabbits. While her little kin have managed to gather a healthy amount of Stardust for her "research", she still needs more. She is willing to pay a huge premium to those who retrieve more materials for her.

She understands that this will require you to either pilfer from one of the factions, or potentially someone even more dangerous. She will be providing samples of one of her drugs, which can grant temporary invisibility in moonlight. Use it for whatever hijinks you want, but she really would prefer if you brought her the goods in the end.

If invisibility doesn't cut if for you, she can provide another sample that provides 10 times your normal strength. While you can KO anyone who gets in your way, it wears off within 5 to 10 seconds. She is very clear that you should not take more than 3 doses of this, or you will very possibly die. Probably. Maybe? It will be unpleasant. So use it only when you need to.

The reward for getting her some Stardust, depending on the amount, can easily pay all a character's expenses for a month, if not longer. The temptation is great, but do you trust this strange rabbit woman?

Welcome to the mini event!

If you have any questions about event content, please ask them here!
Looking for a partner for your prompt? Post 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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[ If Kazuma has done any investigation of his own - to hell with what his clan is asking him to do; there's clearly nefarious things afoot - he will have found out quite quickly that the black market and drug trade has come to life in Jigoku-cho, and that the trade routes circulate around businesses in a particularly seedy part of the city, an area even more prone to random outbursts of violence than the rest of the city.

And, should he choose to check it out for himself, he'll spot someone clearly loitering behind the businesses, glancing to and fro as he angles his head, clearly listening in to whatever sound is filtering out through the tiny window in the back. The sweltering heat really has worked to Kim's benefit. In the face of discomfort, even the most cautious of back-alley dealers have resorted to opening all their windows in hope of the most paltry breeze trickling through.

Despite the fact that he's holding a bunch of garbage bags absolutely stuffed to the brim and has donned a truly vile polyester uniform (7/11, the shirt proudly proclaims), Kazuma will quickly realize that between his age, the round spectacles, and the little moustache decorating his upper lip, that he knows this man, or at least knows his name.

And either he's up to no good, or he's risking getting into a world of trouble in a hurry. ]

Do you? You're a thorough teacher, aren't you?

[Aster's lips purse into a little moue, though without any malice; the way he raises his eyebrows in tandem speaks more of curiosity, as does the way he tips his head, just a touch. It melts back into the saccharine beaming quickly enough, all the same, and he wrinkles his nose with pleasure at the thought of a hypothetical cut of the drink price alone.]

No fruit, then ♡ Consider it a little experiment, I suppose! Under observed conditions where I have to play somewhat fair, too...Unless you're the sort of man who doesn't mind letting me sit in his lap whilst fully sober, of course ♡

[Money is money, and having lots just means that more's always appreciated before the stream dries into a trickle, as far as he's concerned. So, even if this is as good as playing house with plastic food and plastic chairs inside a cubbyhouse for now, it's all setting up for later.

Or maybe that's just Aster being greedy. It's what he's best at, after all.] Has no one ever wanted to take advantage of you, or have they never just been successful? One's far easier to imagine than the other.

I thought I was meant to be working here? And yet you're flattering me and making me blush~

[Is he blushing? There's always a slight rosiness to his cheeks that makes it hard to tell, but at least his words seem sincere otherwise. Listen, praise is always something he'll gobble up readily and with glee! Tear it from his cold, dead hands.]

How about this, senpai ☆ I'll give you a little discount, just between you and me! I think you deserve it, for helping me decide where I wanted to start out, and besides...We might just have a good enough time together that we'd cover it, anyway! Right? Money can't be made without connections and networking, after all~

hey mods! levi and mona are trying to get some info at a bar; levi's disguising themself as a salaryman and mona's talked to the bartender before (handwaved), so the strategy is that she strikes conversation with them while levi tries to sneak around. levi in particular is going to look through backrooms, traces of stardust around the bar, through crates/weird boxes in alleyways and such. they will also see if they can get into the back part of the bar from the outside, too.

are either of them able to gain any valuable information?

Nothing unique that others haven't been able to discover but they will find out something interesting about Stardust itself, namely that it's considered particularly valuable to Celestials.

[ If one faction leader seeks Stardust, then chances are they all do, which does explain plenty of things going on about the city. It's busy, busy, but that's not surprising with how quick people were to take part in that past territorial dispute. This shouldn't be as harrowing a task?

Before he can continue on his way to drop off a package at home, he is stopped by a girl. Wait her face — right. But he won't comment on it. After all, that application did provide the picture and it would be completely unfair for him to point out that he has some vague familiarity with her, he waits for her to speak. ]

Huh?

I thought cards were meant to be tapped or swiped?

[ Was that not how they worked? Then how did the vending machine eat her card? ]

And generally, I would say — Oh, forgive me. You are looking for assistance correct? Very well, let's have a look.

Mm. That'd be pretty awful. But that'd be real convenient too, huh? Y' want me t' feel bad an' ask ya nicely not t' throw the book at my people, right? Well, I ain't changin' what I said.

First, ya ain't answered my question about actually havin' any evidence.

Second, well—... don'tcha just love how the law works? It's so complicated, they got all these li'l loopholes an' procedures for everything. I hope your people down there at the station are makin' sure every stroke is perfect.

[ this is arguably worse because he says this like they're having a normal conversation and even his smile seems perfectly sincere. it's not like he's making any threats or anything.

it would also not be ryouma's first time dragging someone into a legal bureaucratic hell scenario, although it would be his first time doing that in hell. ]

Jeez...

[ for a moment, jack can't help but shudder involuntarily at the thought of having to say something like that. in the back of their head, something like that is...well, mildly embarrassing. they rub the back of their head with a sudden timidness, looking away.

really, it's sometimes such a pain to have to be influenced by this personality. ]

Apologies, about that. Maybe if I were... [ they glance back at musashi for a second, before breaking away again. ] If I were in a different form, it wouldn't be as reluctant.

Truth be told, I'm better at the "spending money" than the making it part, but the boss lady has seen fit to make sure my paycheck is fat, so I can't complain.

[ She laughed, a bit nervously, rubbing the back of her head. ]

Truth is, I actually wound up super in debt, my first day here. From partying too hard.

[Such is what happens when you have the looks to make the clan money. Or accidentally stumble into a promotion and are therefore required to aid in these very strange--yet somewhat practical, from a monetary standpoint--exercises.

But yes. That's the way to go about it; Sholmes appears pleased that he goes out of his way to suggest something on the more expensive end.]

The seared steak? Well, if it is your recommendation, dear fellow, then send off for it! I will give it a try if you think it is worth the money -- the money of which is just simply spilling out of my pockets!

[ A different form? She supposed that made sense... she'd remember hearing that Jack didn't have a set Saint Graph, that whatever physical form they took depended on a lot of factors... at lease she half remembered that, from something Mash told her awhile back. She couldn't even remember how or why it came up...

Ah well. Point was, she figured if it made them more comfortable... ]

Do what you need to do to help yourself relax. While some clients find the nervousness cute, if it's too real, it usually creates a hesitation to spend.

[And this is how Izuku gets into... larping?]

Ah, that makes a lot of sense, Tokoyami-kun!

[He puts his fingers to his chin in thought.]

It wouldn't be unlike the time I had to put on a disguise when Todoroki-kun and I and the others tried to save Kacchan. But that time I was trying to act like an unrecognizable citizen. If I'm thinking of something else that fits here ... I think...

[He puts his fist to his palm.]

A yakuza...?

[ Van Zieks always looks out of place in Tamamo territory. He's like a dark shadow among the various neon signs offering pleasant entertainment, trying to neither see nor be seen.

But he can't refuse an invite from an important Tamamo official, so his dark-cloaked figure shows up at Musashi's office exactly at the right time. He's already argued with Sutoku, here comes Tamamo... He's half expecting to have a call from the Shuten by the end of the week. ]

You wished to see me, so here I am.

[ A dramatic flourish of his cloak, just because he is like that. ]

I assume it is to issue a complaint.

here we go!

Oh my gosh... the idea of Ydris feeding embarrassing personal details they like... live jigoogle searched up on some random Yokai harassing Kim is so hilarious. And also maybe wouldn't even work great because Ydris' sense of what is scandalous is probably pretty dull. Navigating him an escape plan will probably be necessary LOL

IS HE READY TO BE CALLED IN FOR QUESTIONING THEN (he won't be arrested ofc but... a chat, you know...)

Of course, it's our pleasure.

[He doesn't glance down to look at his pockets, but Nero does slide closer to Sholmes.]

Is there anything else we could do to sweeten your stay with us?

[While he's talking, he deftly steals his wallet.]

[ shylock's eyes light up, oh hell yeah brother let's fucking go. ]

Well first of all, what is your name, young man?

[ This makes him feel some kind of something.

... ]

Oren. And your own?

Really? At least the Esteemed Tenkohime knows how to play to your strengths instead, huh?

[Lesson's over, so he's just going to scoot his chair around so that they're side-by-side instead. Easier to lean his head on Musashi's shoulder when they're close, after all. And he's Tired from working so hard~~~

ok no she just looks soft in the right places and he's found that he likes that very much, shhh]

You worked your way out, anyway. And-- I mentioned to you once that it would've helped the local businesses, to spend so much money on them...Right? I wasn't lying ♡ As a businessman, I remember good customers, and try to treat them a little more kindly than the difficult ones~ And if their family members get a little bonus now and then, that's just a happy accident.

So, even if it didn't feel like it at the time, you probably made some yokai very, very happy ♡

Jessica. Nice to meet you, Mr. Oren.

[ it's a name he came up on the fly, but little does he know that it's the name of a certain character in a certain shakespearean work... ]

Did you... Did you have someone like that too? Someone whom you've lost.

I know, I know.

[ and this is exactly why they feel better as a bouncer than as an actual performer...in this form, at least. at this point, they sound little more than a whiny teenager. and while there are forms that might be suited towards oiran work, they figure that those might end up being just a little too much for a customer that just wants a drink.

perhaps something in between that. cheerful, energetic, and ready to please the customer... perhaps something more feminine? ]

I have an idea, but I'd have to ask you to keep a secret. The Boss herself asked me to keep this under wraps, so I want to be discreet about it.

[ the less people that know, the better. but if she's a lieutenant, then... ]

[Unfortunately, that's... not entirely off from what Owen finds fun. Sure, he hates losing, but fighting with the intent to kill? That was a near daily occurrence back home. It was equal parts fun, thrilling, and annoying.]

It has it's benefits, even if I wouldn't say all deaths are all that fun.

[There's some peace to all deaths in the end, sure, but things like starvation or hypothermia? He'd rather not repeat those very often.]

You can call me Owen, if you want. I don't really care.

[He honestly doesn't care about what Mortelix prefers, either, so whether or not he'll actually call him Mort and not something far more obnoxious is up in the air.]

No worries! Sorry it took me so long to get back to you orz.

[ if kate thought she was miserable, dosei is seething.

he doesn't like school. he doesn't like people. and he certainly does not like being told what to wear, especially when there's no bribery involved. so sitting here, masked cheeks sunk into his palms and maid dress skirt brushing his knees, he looks like an atom bomb on the verge of going off.

at least he's not the only one suffering here.

the sheer unimpressed energy radiating off the two is them is enough to make some people give them a wide berth, which means there's nothing to distract him from meeting her glare head on with his own. ]

hell no
you first youve been here longer

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Page 29 of 47

July 2022 Mini Event

for kazuma

me, sitting here days later, still mad that i didn't think of that pun first (￣ε(#￣)

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on the lookout.

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sorry for the delay!

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Musashi

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no worries!

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🐰 bnnuyy IM LATE