jigokulogs | July 2022 Mini Event

MAIN NAVIGATION

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ As someone possessing a single star in the Sutoku Clan, Kim is by no means considered to be an authority, but he is at least an authority over the newcomers. He had been informed by his superiors that it was his job to help loop some of the newcomers into some of Sutoku's business, a familiar task he tends to find tedious at best; while he has nothing but sympathy for those who had unceremoniously found themselves here, it reminds him too much of having to train fleet after fleet of novice police officers back home, only for the bulk of them to quit within months, if not weeks, of completing their training.

Still, he knows better than to complain, and he certainly considers it a more palatable task than what other means of violence or seduction the other clans are getting up to. He sent the person he had been assigned a message asking for him to meet him well outside of the area they were supposed to be surveilling for a debrief, and that was that. Soundwave is a curious name, but this world is filled with curious names, and so he had not expected anything any more exciting than a particularly non-human looking Lost Soul. Strange eyes, animal ears, a tendency to float were more or less the extent of which he was expecting.

He usually prides himself on his stoicism, even in the face of youkai that he finds frankly terrifying, but it's impossible to maintain that when something out of a young Kim's wildest dreams suddenly comes lumbering around the corner. ]

What in the...?

[ He had asked Soundwave to look out for a man in an orange jacket. He had neglected to ask Soundwave to identify himself in kind, and so he simply gawks, eyes wide and mouth ajar, craning his neck to look for the newcomer's driver. Not that he has any expectation that Soundwave is the one steering this particular vehicle, but when it comes to mechanics, he's easily distracted. ]

[On the way, Soundwave couldn't helped but wonder that he's technically taking orders from organics. Ironic considering the strain relationship between most organic species and Cybertronians, but he had worked together with them before. Well, mostly humans. But he had worked together well with them. Unlike his past self from a couple years ago, he doesn't mind this at all. It doesn't take much to drive himself to the designated meeting place, even if he's about the size of a power wheeler.

He might've have realized that he himself had neglected to identify himself, as not every member has met him, but there's a certain amusement he took at all the surprise reactions he's gotten so far. So, he'll keep it secret until they meet. And... ah, that must be him. Soundwave made sure to know of every faces of the clan, especially anyone who contained a star. Because he's just like that.

No matter how hard Kim searches, he won't find a driver inside. But he'll hear a voice, what's unmistakably a mechanical-like quality voice seems to be coming from the vehicle itself, even makes a throat-clearing sound first. Which is funny because he doesn't have a throat.]

You must be Kim Kitsuragi. I suggest you step back a little. Pardon.

[Why? Well, he'll soon see why. First thing to happen... The vehicle's flank shoot outwards, though the segmented part appear to still be attached. Metal plating click apart, slide, and folding itself against one another without colliding or scraping each other, all moving parts working in concert to transform into an entirely new shape. Two legs form first and hit the ground, then the arms, and just a few instances later... the being standing before Kim is a humanoid mech. Soundwave rises up to his ten feet tall height, with glowing red visor focused down at Kim.

As if ignoring the surprise, Soundwave introduces himself, one hand resting on the windshield on his chest where there's also purple symbol on it- a faction he was previously afflicted with, but still considered himself as one, along with the Sutoku Pin he stabbed onto the wiper.]

I am Soundwave.

[ Kim absolutely gapes. He doesn't mean to, and he knows that he's doing it, but he's somehow lost control over all of his motor functions. He has seen incredible things, particularly in his time here: magical shields powerful enough to absorb bullets, people with the ability to read minds, creatures powerful enough to crush skulls in the palm of their hand, and this is nonetheless the most impressive thing he's ever seen.

He just wants to see it over, and over, and over again. For a moment he's as giddy as a child, sheer excitement taking over his body, and he only just manages to keep himself from asking to see it again. He could see it a hundred times without being content, just to see where all of the moving parts fit together. He stares up at him, raising his hand to cover his mouth.

It takes every molecule of will he has to comport himself as is befitting of a senior member of the Sutoku clan. ]

...I'm terribly sorry for staring, [ he manages. ] My name is Kim Kitsuragi, as you've put together, and I -- I was not expecting to see -- well. To be perfectly frank, I've never met anyone like you before. That was incredible!

[ It's probably rude to call someone else that by virtue of their composition alone - that much would likely get someone a talking-to about harassment, he thinks; it would be distasteful to call anyone's body incredible - but he couldn't quite help letting that slip. ]

[He isn't ever going to get used to this kind of reaction from people, is he? Still! He knows that no one here knows Cybertronian history and their less than stellar reputation with other species. Better than being feared or threatened at least, so he'll take it even if he finds it all strange.]

Ah. And here I heard from other members that Kim Kitsuragi is a stoic.

[He's teasing. Just... It's hard to tell with his monotone voice.]

That is fine. I've found that it's rare to find someone who knows a person of mechanical race.

[He understands Kim's amazement, and rude and distasteful as it was to say that about someone's body, he'll let it slide just this once.]

I usually am, [ Kim says. He straightens his spine, allows himself to regain some of his lost composure, expression flattening out until one would think he hasn't lost face at all -- except for the fact that his ears are burning a vicious red. He does not blush as a general rule, but his ears are a treacherous thing that rat him out more often than not.

Get it back together, Kitsuragi. He clears his throat, trying to appear far more dignified than he is and suppressing the part of him that just wants to ask the poor man another thirty questions about his biological - technological? - make-up. ]

You took me by surprise. And I think you know very well that you would, considering. [ He can begrudgingly admire that. He'd probably take some joy in it too. ] What is your race called, if I might ask?

July 2022 Mini Event

for soundwave

no subject

so sorry for the long wait!!!

npnp!!!

no subject