jigokulogs | closed

[Leshy had found something, in his moment of need. While Artemy patched him up enough to get by, he wasn't going to recover anytime soon. That was, until a force called out to him, like instinct, like some primal migration urge. He followed and he found something that felt... familiar.

Was this... the OLD_ DATA? Leshy wouldn't be correct in his assumption, this darkness was more of this world than that of his own. Still, he devoured the force, consumed it, so it could be one with him. It would be his power. He would not squander it. Such an act further exhausts him. He collapses in an alleyway and begins to doze off. The power settles within his core and from him the reality around him shifts.

What Fumikage will find is a curious crowd gathering at the entrance to said alleyway. When looking down it, instead of seeing the usual space between two buildings, it is somehow a forest. Fully grown fir trees jot out as if they had always been there, towering upward, branches bend and crowding the space. There is dirt and patches of grass, a natural misty fog, and darkness too deep to see through. Yokai are gathering and looking curiously down it, but none are daring to actually investigate.

If they did, they'd find the beast man within, naturally camouflaged as he lay against a tree trunk, only visible because half his body was wrapped in bandages. He mutters, a low and yet tranquil hum]

What creature... visits me...

Edited 2022-08-14 20:16 (UTC)

[Fumikage had heard the rumours of a being lurking around here, and of course he couldn't just let it go un-investigated. As a hero in training, it pays to investigate rumours of possible villain activity that could harm others. What he doesn't expect to find is a fully grown forest in between two buildings, seemingly out of nowhere and yet as if it were always there. And while other yokai might be too nervous to enter, Fumikage is the one who steps in to investigate despite the concerned voices behind him.]

[It's eerily quiet within, enough that he calls upon Dark Shadow to hover nearby as he walks through the underbrush. The grass and dried leaves crunch underfoot as he steps forward, and he does his best to peer through the fog around him. But as he rounds a large tree, he pauses in shock and takes a step back at the familiar form and voice before him.]

You..!

[Behind him, Dark Shadow lets out a little hiss.]

What lurks... the baneful vulture? No... No, you are too early. I'm not yet a carcass. [Leshy mutters this out, almost wistful sounding, scarcely coherent. One eyes spins and then the other as he speaks, a flickering of confusion. He's in great pain and long exhausted. Could he fight back against a scavenger? Perhaps... desperation often grants hidden strength to survive.

He would rather not discover that strength, he would rather not fight. Rare, for him, but the truth of his condition is clear.]

I know you. yes. I know your shadow. The clever raven, the one who escaped. [something of a chuckle, something of amusement on his features]

You lost. You owed me a prize. Yet, here I am, at your mercy. Funny... and unfair.

[It's the creepy man from the game tent. That feels like so long ago, given all that's happened this past month. At Leshy's words, Dark Shadow hisses again, but Fumikage is the one who speaks up.]

I was not made aware of the nature of your... prize should I lose.

[Fumikage keeps his distance, looking at the injured beast of a man before him. Two things cross his mind; just how beastly he looks, and also his injuries. His brow furrows.]

...you're injured. What happened?

You should be more keen. No game worth playing is without risk. [he coughs, ragged and pained, blood glistening on his beard in the dark. It looks like he's been hacking it up, but the pathetic display is misleading. It's not his blood so near his mouth... but none could tell.]

I fought... with another bird. A phoenix girl, she could not kill me. [he answers with utmost seriousness, even if he's being poetic over it. There always needs to be flavor to his descriptions, it's not good enough to explain plainly. If Fumikage has ever seen Azula on the network, that is a match to her username. It's not difficult to connect the ideas,]

Hmph... and no wager should be made without everyone knowing those risks.

[It's said a little defensively, but that defensiveness fades a bit when he hears that pained coughing. It's subtle, but his frown shifts from one of anger to one of concern.]

A phoenix girl..? [Ironically, he has met Azula, but never over the network; he's only met her in person. As such, he doesn't immediately connect "phoenix girl" with Azula. But his curiosity is momentarily stemmed by the very clear wounds on Leshy's body right now.]

You.. need medical treatment. You could die like this.

[Behind him, Dark Shadow lets out a "Heh!" at those words, but doesn't otherwise move to attack or say anything else.]

Yes... she was of the ENMA. I nearly killed her, but the pack closed in on our duel. It is good that she lived- [a contradictory statement, it sounds at first. He hisses to adjust some against the tree he's resting on, bandages stinging with whatever salve Artemy applied. Leshy is healing rapidly because of the force he devoured, but that itself is taking a lot out of him. He can barely move, his voice is lower and more hoarse than before, and he already sounded like gravel.]

-... I will have a proper... rematch. When we both are done licking our wounds...

[the claim he needs more medical treatment than this gets another cough of a laugh from him.]

No. I will live. I only need rest. And to not be picked at by scavengers.

You..!

[Leshy almost killed her?? What the hell... This man is definitely a dangerous one... he shakes his head.]

I don't see the need to kill anyone, especially when we are all trapped here and attempting to find a way home.

[Was Leshy one who could be reasoned with anyway? Given his violent demands for something as simple as a game, he genuinely wonders... But perhaps now's not the time. He shakes his head.]

I am not here to scavenge you.

[He hesitates, glancing up at Dark Shadow. The two share a look, have an unspoken conversation between them. Dark Shadow huffs and crosses his arms, while Fumikage looks back to Leshy.]

Even so... it doesn't sit well with me to leave you injured like this. Not if I could help.

If you help me... consider your loss nullified. [Fumikage hadn't agreed to a price of losing and Leshy deemed it for him. However, if Leshy is too weak to collect that prize, then something like this will do in it's place. He won't go about owing people, it's weakness to be indebted.]

All I need is rest. To be left alone. Shoo away other scavengers who will come. Especially the ENMA, they are the most cunning.

Nullified..?

[That catches his attention. Fumikage frowns, glancing at Dark Shadow again, another silent conversation passing between them. Dark Shadow lets out another huff and rolls his eyes, though he has no actual eyes to roll. Fumikage takes a breath, then nods, turning back to Leshy.]

...very well. How long do you need to rest?

Null and forgotten. [he groans at some distant sound, a siren wail like some ENMA officers might have been called to investigate the scene. They won't try very hard, especially if Fumikage goes and gives them some excuse to ignore this anomaly.

There's more important stuff going on, after all! Like chasing that serial killer from the Tanabata river side! They really got to find that guy...]

An hour. I'll sleep this pain away and be moving soon enough. If not, I'll die and that will be it. [what does it matter then? Leshy survives or he doesn't. Simple. The way of nature. He is strong enough to keep living or he isn't, the Scrybe would rather die than accept more help than this.]

[Though he doesn't exactly trust Leshy, he also doesn't like the idea of him just... dying here. Still, if that's what the old man wants, Fumikage can let him rest, at least. And at least this way, his supposed transgressions would be forgiven.]

Very well. I will keep them away.

[He has to wrangle Dark Shadow to cooperate, but soon he is using his Black Abyss technique, donning Dark Shadow like a second skin as he keeps an eye out for the Enma officers. He won't harm them, just create distractions and do small scares to divert the officers away from Leshy's position.]

[The ENMA that were sent out do not care to handle this situation, not one bit. They don't get paid enough for this! The yokai scramble off after a few scares from Dark Shadow and from then on, it's an hour of keeping watch at the entrance to the alley. Most curious onlookers are easily detoured just by the young Sutoku's words.

After about an hour, the forest slowly recedes. Disappears completely as if it had never existed there at all.

Leshy did as he said. He rested, recovered, and fled. The solid illusions his new found power created would leave with him, only influencing where he was currently. With him gone, it all returns to a normal alleyway in some forgotten corner of the city.

If Fumikage looks to where Leshy has once been, there's a "gift" of sorts, left behind. The severed hand of some yokai. A highroller at the Tamamo Pleasure Palace, it seems, who went missing that night and was found in the river without his head or hands. This hand is still wearing an array of golden jewelry. Leshy had little interest in such fineries, he'd taken the hand as a trophy itself. The fact it looks chewed on is another matter entirely...

It's up to the young hero if he's willing to call back to the ENMA and report such a thing, he might not want to implicate himself. He did just help cover for the killer they're all on the hunt for. Maybe better to just... let this one be an anonymous tip.]

[Leshy why are you LIKE THIS--]

[Oh he definitely finds that hand, and he definitely has a moment of ice-cold dread at the implications there. And after a moment, he will report the hand to the Enma, but... definitely leaving it anonymous.]

[What the actual hell has he gotten tangled up in...]

[After leaving a voice message to Matoba, Leshy marked a time and place. The time was late at night, when the moon would hang high and bright, dulled only by the luminous city lights below. The place was an all together suspicious cellar, tucked away in an alley along the borders of Tamamo and Sutoku territory line. The pair of doors were left wide open and staircase downward lit by a flickering, warm glow of a room tucked down low.

A room that looks just like a windowless cabin. It's all wooden, furnished sparsely with what looks like handmade furniture, some masterfully carved with decorations of animal forms. There's a table with seemingly random decorations; a globe with odd shaped landmasses, a human skull with golden teeth, a cage with a wooden totem within it, a candlestick.... There's a vault tucked in a corner, with a smell like rotting meat emanating from it. A gramophone plays strangely soothing music that fills the space. Disturbing, overall, but nothing appears outright dangerous nor all that threatening.

Then there is Leshy himself. He sits at a center table, largely obscured by darkness. Across from him is an empty chair, pulled out for a guest. There is a set of scales between the two and a game board where cards could be played. He's shuffling a deck in his hands. He does not turn his head to regard Matoba when he dares enter.]

You've arrived, now don't delay. I long to get started. [he has his most preferred game to play, the one he was made for]

[Against every fiber in his body that has any good sense, Matoba receives that message, and goes to the place inscribed upon it. He could feel the cursed energy coming through the voice message- a power that even human exorcists made use of from time to time- had managed to repel it from his self.]

[For a long while he sat and considered that he should have gotten rid of this monster when he had the chance, but it had been his thought that the clanheads would not let such a beast run wild in their city as they did freely in the human world.]

[...Trusting a beast to be sensible. That was the real mistake.]

[He could not discount that if he didn't go, that Leshy would not inflict himself upon some other Lost Soul. And he also couldn't discount that, his interest piqued in the curse, that he might seek to take its power for himself. That thing was too strong for any human to handle, its cursed energy too severe for even other ayakashi to want to come into contact with it- but this one did not seem deterred by the threat of such a fate.]

[At the end of the day, he should clean up his own messes himself. Involving others was always an impossible ask, for the head of the clan.]

[Matoba stands at the precipice of the murky basement stairs, a long package wrapped at his back, and makes the preparations any exorcist should, when entering the lair of an ayakashi. He sets one shiki at the entrance to the dank basement, with instructions to fetch someone who could seal this monster, if Matoba could not. He paints with ink a warding charm over the flesh of his heart and the back of his right hand. There are ofuda on his person. It might soften the blows, allow him to survive so that he might chant a spell which would destroy this creature.]

[Then, he descends.]

[...Well. It was certainly the lair of a forest beast, wasn't it. Matoba takes in the cabin-like scene with a sweep of his right eye, and then lays a thin smile upon Leshy's form. This place was filled with talismans of power; it made the entire place have a nauseating feel. His own aura was unrestrained. It had to be, in order not to be swept up in the air of this place.]

Should I accept a game that I don't yet know the rules to? You invited me for a discussion. [His tone is flippant, and unabashed. He doesn't take his eye away from Leshy now that they've acknowledge one another.] Tell me of this prize, so that I might decide its worth for myself.

I will explain the rules. Sit so that you may learn them and I will speak with you between rounds.

[Leshy flips cards from his deck out onto the table. They are not traditional playing cards, but his game. INSCRYPTION. Each card has the image of beast upon it. Squirrels, two wolves, and a stout... for Matoba to start with.

They all seem to quiver slightly, as if imbued with their own life. Cowering, maybe. Leshy's eyes spin, bright against the looming darkness.]

The prize for your triumph will be what I have to tell you. You can sense my powers. I can tell you can. You're a curious one.

[not a question, a statement of fact. An assertion about Matoba he may not care to have said so plainly. The man couldn't have come here at all if he was more sensable than curious. So. He's a curious one, no doubt about it. Leshy can leverage that.

If, or perhaps when, Matoba sits at table, it's no magic he'll find binding him.

Just the feeling of his foot landing upon a pressure plate. A feeling on a steel trap unlocking, being held open only by the weight down upon it. If Matoba tries to run, that will spring closed. He can look down and spy just how gnarled the jaws of it are, twisted rebar and blow torch bent sheet metal. It's crude, but doesn't that make it more dangerous? Handmade. Assured to cause damage... but not cleanly. So much for warding spells, they don't help against the raw danger of the mechanical.]

[Matoba stands upon the threshold, and watches as Leshy shuffles. Curious cards filled with magic, quivering with... the sealed souls of beasts? It's just a guess; he can't sense anything definitive from them, with the overpowering sense of presence in this place. It all just melded together into one.]

[Cards. It was a form of divination, perhaps. Matoba's lips curls with distaste.]

It would be nice to not sense them, [He mouths back dryly. Then, he smiles. Despite his difficult nature, one could not dispute Leshy's logic there.] It had better be information worth the trouble, or I'll banish you anyway.

[And so, he steps forward. His eye is still sweeping the room for signs of visible spell-marks when he scrapes the chair back from the table and feels the subtle click. He looks down, and takes in the scene, with no flare of fear or apprehension, because those were emotions he learned to repress a long time ago.]

You're a very crafty one, aren't you? Fascinated in the inventions of man.

That is what interests me. [He pulls the long wrapping from his back and sits, slowly, so as not to disturb the mechanism. He lays his own device of killing, his bow, across his lap. So that was the game... Well. As long as it was just a leg, and not his eye.] Not a very even trade, is this? A meal for you and some information I may not even care about for me. If you lose, I want something else, as well. Perhaps your servitude.

What is this power you have to offer me?

Crafty? [that seems to amuse him, he shuffles his cards before setting them down in the darkness on his side. A brass call bell seems blink into existence on Matoba's side, sat in front of the set of scales between the two of them.]

I judged a half sighted beast would misstep on his blind side. Hardly crafty. You're too focused on the magical. So distracted with the bait, you rushed right into the trap.

[The cards stop quivering, stacking themselves and organizing to one side in a pair of decks for Matoba to draw from.]

You don't make rules here. You don't set the stakes. This is my game. Draw your hand and play.

[on Leshy's side, a card that reads Coyote appears. It has a 2 etched above a claw symbol, and a 1 on the other side. A fragile, if dangerous creature in the game. Leshy goes right into teaching the rules]

Play a Squirrel on your side. You can use it to block my Coyote from harming you. Or you can save the small creature and take the damage yourself. Hit the bell when you've made your choice.

[Right into the game, answers are for if Matoba survives the round. Until then, only taunts and teaching. There's two options and two outcomes, both are to be learned from.

Matoba can set the Squirrel in front of the Coyote and ring the bell. The Coyote will attack and the Squirrel will die, squeaking in pain before melting into blood on the table. It returns to his turn a demonstration of the value of staving off an attack, but it leaves Matoba's hand with one less card to play freely. It seems other beasts have a cost of blood. He cannot physically lift them from his hand to play without paying it.

If Matoba doesn't allow the animal to die, the Coyote will attack him directly. He might expect this to, actually and physically, hurt him... but that's not the case. It's all atmospheric. There's a tightening of pressure in the room, of tension winding up, but it does not inflict real pain. Two teeth would fall onto Matoba's side of the weighted scales, tipping it against him, denoting he is losing the match at hand.]

Hmmm... [Fair, Matoba supposes- although he isn't going answer that one way or another. Better not to let Leshy know of any of the precautions he'd taken already, and let him think the exorcist was at his mercy.]

Yes, crafty. I'm amazed you're capable of something like this, actually- making use of man's tools in order to craft something this complex... crude as it is. [Matoba glances down at the death-trap, as if he were admiring some fine pottery.] For a spirit of the forest. But this place carries many such surprises.

I suppose these trinkets interest me, too. [Boredly, he glances at the cards that have been laid out before him, with their shuddering beasts. He can't sense the souls trapped within them- was it a spell that made them bleed and suffer? He makes the decision to sacrifice easily- dropping the Squirrel card down in front of the Coyote. Learning this beast's nature was going to be key. Matoba was not above self-sacrifice, but he must play his game for as long as was necessary to learn to undermine it.]

[Ayakashi were so fond of games and contests. It was a weakness.]

Did you make these? [Matoba asks, looking at the cards in his hand. A stoat, and a wolf.]

Interest won't be enough to win. You'll need to understand this game. I hazard you'll even enjoy it.

[It's a good game. Well balanced for challenge while being breakable in ways that are undoubtedly fun to explore and exploit. Leshy's game is not that of raw mechanics. The flavor, the intrigue, is key to it's execution.]

I inscrybed these cards. My legendary camera can capture any beast and bind it to my deck. You'll see in time the power they hold. [A new line of cards appears on his side.]

You may now see my next play. This is to give you time to react and time to fear. [a wolf appears on his side, set up to fall in place beside the Coyote next turn.]

You used a Squirrel to block damage, but now you have nothing to sacrifice. Draw another. [Matoba has a deck of squirrels on his side, but only his two cards in hand that do damage. The Stoat and the Wolf. One blood is denoted on the former, two on the latter. The Cost. He can win if he thinks through the following moves. Draw and play the squirrel, sacrifice it for the Stoat, kill the Coyote... but take the damage of the incoming Wolf from Leshy's side. Three damage, leaving him two away from a loss.

Or, if he misreads this game, giving his own blood might work. Leshy will find that curious. He's not actually used to playing with players able to work outside the boundaries of his code.]

Oh? [Leshy gets a grin for his troubles. It's not a nice one.] Fun, you say?

...I hazard that you're right.

[The beast could defend his little game all he liked; what Matoba liked were all the trappings of it. The talking, the mindgames, the danger that was beneath his feet, waiting to snap. And the danger that the beast was in, without knowing it.]

[A camera that binds souls- definitely not the first he's heard of such a thing, but it does give a glimpse into his familiarity with the creations of man. Using paper to bind a soul was also hardly new to him. Paper, hm...]

[He might be necessary, after all. What a pain.]

Fear. [Matoba repeats it incredulously, but watches Leshy's movements. It's a perfectly understandable concept. If a pawn dies and the danger remains, you need another to use in its stead. Matoba draws the Squirrel, places it down. He glances at the symbols that mark the cards.]

[Sacrifice was a broad term, but the iconography made it fairly clear. Glancing up, he raises an eyebrow towards Leshy across the table, and keeps his fingertips poised on his cards as he deliberates his move.]

Explain more clearly, if you wish for me to understand. When you say "sacrifice", to what end? What constitutes an acceptable sacrifice?

To play a more powerful card, like those in your hand, you will need to pay the blood cost. A creature on your side of the field is usually worth one blood, like the Squirrels. Some are worth more, if they have a sigil marking them as such.

[he taps his Coyote card, which has a blank space beneath the image of the animal.]

Sigils will be shown here. These cards have none. That is for later.

[Another moment of consideration, before a knife materializes on Matoba's side of the board. It's a short, carving blade. Sharp, but jagged and overused, rusted at the hilt some. ~~Have you had your tetanus shot, Matoba-?~~]

Though... You, too, can bleed. I'll give you another option. [Leshy thinks the game might be a bit more interesting with a new twist... Something he could not do in the world of the DISC. Here, where his opponent is so much flesh and blood, the cost can be paid in other ways.]

If you wish to pay the blood cost yourself, then slice your palm open and soak the card you wish to play. It must be a deep cut, or the beast will not be fed... and a beast that is not fed will not fight for you.

[It really was very much the type of "sacrifice" he'd assumed. How about that. Matoba's eye draws across the different cards currently laid out on the table, and the ones in his hand. Stoat- 1 blood. Wolf, 2. Very well. He draws a Squirrel card again, and is glancing between the blood costs when he hears the THNK of the knife.]

[His head turns at the glint of a blade, old and worn, sunk into the side of the table. It was the sort of blade that suited an old thing like Leshy.]

[The corner of his mouth turns up.] How fortunate I thought to bring a cleaner option. [Laying his cards down neatly on the table, he reaches into the sleeve of his kimono and draws out a tanto- its blade design by contrast to the knife was straight and gleamed with fresh steel, its black lacquer handle made not for utilitarianism but for single-cut execution. That impression was interrupted by the addition of two spelltags, one over the hilt, and one over the blade. It wasn't intended for cutting mortal things, but it would do the trick nonetheless.]

[Placing the sheath on the table, he closes his hand over the blade and slides his hand along it with no hesitation, clenching his fist over the Wolf card and letting blood drip in a strain.]

Have you heard the whispers of your fellow monsters? They say that the Matoba do not honor their contracts. If I win, shall I let you live to tell them otherwise? [He turns the blade of his tantou down and sinks it into the table, on his own side in front of Leshy's knife.] You can use that one. Let's not be unhygienic.

[He's not done. He places the Squirrel down, too, and then sacrifices it for the Stoat to stand before the Coyote. Finally, with his hand still wet with blood, he taps the bell.]

Is that why you are so interested in it? Because it is hungry.

I am the forest itself, in this game. Beasts will follow my whims without sacrifice. [he has no need for such a blade, but he will make it disappear. Matoba has his own and it's a curious blade. Leshy sees it only as a raw implement of violence, cannot understand the seals of banishment. It does what it's meant for well, spilling the man's blood upon his cards and allowing them to attack. The Coyote is struck down and Matoba's Wolf does direct damage, tipping the scales back.]

Because you are learning, I will pass. [The Wolf that was already placed on the board moves forward. It devours the Stoat, but does no damage to Matoba. Another block. With the Wolves on each side set apart from another another in separate lanes, it would be a stalemate if Matoba doesn't block the incoming attacks. Fortunately, he can do so freely if he keeps drawing squirrels and playing them for Leshy's Wolf to devour. It's an easy win for him, if he persists for a couple rounds of the same pattern, Leshy not adding more to his side.

This is only the first round, after all. He gives Matoba the win and in place of the cards, which dissolve from the table, a map appears. A little, carved wooden character sits on Matoba's side. It has an eyepatch painted on in black. Leshy likes his details.]

All living beasts feel hunger, that is not special. It's perpetual existence, so long as it has your kind to hunt, is what draws my attention. I should like such power, it reminds me of my favorite card.

[his hand moves forward across the table and opens, a card manifesting with in it. It is a snake eating it's own tail. A (1) health and (1) damage card for (2) Blood Cost.

Worse, at a glance, than the common Stoat. Mysterious, for that reason. Perhaps, just bait to make Matoba bleed himself further.]

It gains in power upon every death. Will you use it? [The Ouroboros]

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Closed | for @blackabyss

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I got bodyslammed by work whoops

It's all good! RL got hectic for me too, so you're good <3

the rl smackdown

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🎀

Closed | for @worldbent

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