September 2022 Mingle!

[jigokumods]

MAIN NAVIGATION


The influx of fresh Lost Souls means the factions need to have a little welcoming party for them. So some recreational activities are in order. All Lost Souls will receive a message from their respective faction leaders with orders to go have some fun.

Shuten - WEENIES ON PARADE

Shuten Clan newbies will be summoned to the Arena, which has been set up with a very different kind of fight than usual. The members of the Shuten Clan do nothing by half-measures. Partying, drinking, and eating are all encouraged to excess. This time they're inviting new recruits to test their mettle in various eating contests. You'll need nerves of steel and a stomach of iron to succeed. Hot dogs, marshmallows, pizza, lobster rolls, breakfast cereals, rice, and more are all on offer.

See how much you can eat and try not to get sick! Competitive eating is a messy, disgusting affair, regardless of the emergency buckets stationed strategically throughout the building.

If you're feeling especially ballsy, you can take on the biggest onis and other youkai by teaming up with your fellow Shutens. They're all confident enough to take that bet.

Glory, prize money, and antacids to the winners. Shame to the losers – they'll be run through town in weenie costumes.

Better eat up 🙂

Tamamo - ALL NIGHT LONG

The newest Tamamo recruits are summoned to a local gymnasium. Strangely, rather than sports equipment laid out on the court, there are a number of light futons, blankets, and pillows. Everyone will be sorted into one of two yukata patterns – one purple and one blue – and sent to their respective sides of the court to lie down in bed and pull up the covers.

It is then that the referee will explain the rules of competitive pillow fighting. When the whistle blows, jump up and grab one of the authorized pillows at the center of the court. It's a game much like dodgeball, but the goal is to hit the opposing team's king with a pillow from your half of the court. Team members use blankets and sometimes their bodies to protect their king.

There will be a few rounds, and you can rotate who is king at your discretion. Protect them with your life! Or whatever. Star players will receive a bonus and a coupon to one of the best Tamamo spas.

When the competitive stuff is done, the sleepover proper will begin. There will be liquor, sodas, and light snacks for everyone while movies are projected onto a screen late into the morning. The movies range from classic dramas and romances to outrageous yokai comedies.

Sutoku - GROSSERY GANG

The Alliance has found themselves in the possession of an entire truckload's worth of reject children's toys. Ever the opportunist, the Daitengu has assigned the project of inventorying and trashing the particularly offensive ones to the new guys.

Of course, you're expected to play with a few of them as well. Maybe one of them is decently fun, and they could sell the rest, you know? Many of these toys are gross out bathroom humor in nature, and spit water randomly at anyone who loses their round. The Daitengu has thoughtfully provided a selection of alcohol to make this game a little more adult friendly. Toys that lack the appropriate spitting mechanism can still be played over shots, really, go nuts.

While you 'work', there will be plenty of motivating music piped into the warehouse. The sound quality is not great, but they tried?

Everyone who sorts through a decent amount of toys will get a little extra pay, although who is really paying that much attention to who's doing what here?

Credit where it's due: We turned kids toys into drinking games

Enma - BREAKING THE ICE

Welcome to the Department of the Enma. New Lost Soul recruits will be summoned to a large conference room in Kaigo no Bou, which has been outfitted with a variety of buffet table offerings and tables which seat between 5 - 6 people comfortably. You are invited to fill your plates at your discretion, the craft services people are used to feeding bottomless yokai stomachs and the food will not run out.

Clipboards with a variety of icebreaker questions have been provided at each table. The pens have assuredly been firmly affixed to the clipboard. Please return them together.

Every 30 minutes Captain Shiki will blow her whistle to signal that you are to migrate to another table with fresh companions. You are, indeed, being forced to get to know your coworkers, lucky you. This isn't tedious at all.

Pick a few of the questions below to answer, and get chatting. Or Captain Shiki may come over to stare at you with intense disapproval. You can't get away with just zoning out to that sweet smooth jazz playing overhead!

1. If you had a time machine that would work only once, what point in the future or in history would you visit? 2. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? 3. If your house was burning down, what three objects would you try and save? 4. If you could talk to any one person now dead or alive, who would it be and why? 5. If you HAD to give up one of your senses (hearing, seeing, feeling, smelling, tasting) which would it be and why? 6. If you were an animal, what would you be and why? 7. Do you have a pet? If not, what sort of pet would you like? 8. Name a gift you will never forget? 9. Name one thing you really like about yourself. 10. What's your favorite thing to do in the summer? 11. Who's your favorite cartoon character, and why? 12. Does your name have a special meaning and/or were you named after someone special? 13. What is the hardest thing you have ever done? 14. If you are at a friend's or relative's house for dinner and you find a dead insect in your salad, what would you do? 15. What was the best thing that happened to you this past week? 16. If you had this week over again, what would you do differently? 17. What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think about 'God'? 18. What's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten? 19. If you could change one problem in the world today, what would you like to change? 20. What book, movie or video have you seen/read recently you would recommend? Why?

All Factions - THE GIFT OF SONG

Did you all enjoy having some of your wishes granted? Well, so did a flock of those annoying magpie! They asked for the gift of music. These feathered nuisances, however, have fallen in love with an old school metal band. That is all they will be singing for the foreseeable future! Different members of the flock have taken up different instrumentals and vocals for the track, spread out across electrical wires and rooftops, singing their favorite rockin' tune to the skies!

Lost Souls have been asked to please catch them and get them to knock it off, they are truly annoying everyone, across all factions.

Should you catch these musical magpies, and not one of the other clans, they will tell you their sorry tale! They love this band, but the group broke up years ago. All the magpie want is for their favorite old dudes to be reunited to jam with them, one more time!

The old dudes are out there in the city, but who knows why they broke up and if they can even be convinced out of retirement. Good luck, if you succeed your boss will give you a favorable bonus, which would be a great boon to a newbie just getting settled.

In the meantime:

Shabadabadia
Shabadabadia
Babababa
Babababa
Babababa

Welcome to the IC mingle!

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Comments

Kim Wexler | Better Call Saul | Enma

[saintclaire]

ENMA - BREAKING THE ICE

[Conference rooms, catered meals, a drink in one hand and a slightly nicer dress. The music is a bit much, but amusing in its own way. She was a teenager in the 80s, she's seen The Bodyguard –– what's not to like about what youkai consider office part appropriate? It could be a good evening.

And then she sees the questions.

Kim's expression is calm and studious as she looks at the clipboard. These are questions she would consider mortifying, too intimate for any work setting, this included. Some feel mawkish, too bizarre –– what adult has a favourite cartoon character? Do the fifteen year old gangsters here still watch cartoons?

She looks at the clock, and at the people around the table. Six people, thirty minutes –– five minutes apiece, including room for discussion and banter back and forth. Most of these can be glossed over. While everyone at her first table looks over the clipboard, she crosses out various questions with a pen, ruling them out as talking points. She looks at what she has left:

2. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?
4. If you could talk to any one person now dead or alive, who would it be and why?
20. What book, movie or video have you seen/read recently you would recommend? Why?

That should do.

She looks at the person to her left. If they go clockwise, she'll be last.]

Do you want to start us off?



ALL - THE GIFT OF SONG

[Kim is sitting on a café's patio with a couple books in front of her, all in Japanese, all about the legal system. She also has a pad of yellow ruled paper, filled top to bottom with careful notes in careful lettering. This is research. This is is––

Incredibly hard to concentrate on.

Kim glances overhead at the magpie, at its warbling throat. It sings at top volume, and she frowns deeper as it goes on, and on. These are the birds they've been instructed to catch; how to do that, Kim has no idea.

She laughs suddenly, face dropping into her hand.

God.]

breaking the ice

[mechspeed]

[There are a lot of questions on this list Metal considers a waste of time, if only because much of his life experience doesn't translate to having answers for over half of them. Any questions related to a traditional upbringing - talk of pets, homes, favourite entertainment - all things he has no experience with, nor things he has ever even thought about. It's really how he feels a lot about this gathering, really.

But if only to keep Shiki off his back given he's been a particularly uncooperative participant up until now in their small talk group activity, he begrundingly stares down at the list in extended silence when Kim asks him to start them off.

Really.

Really.

Extended.

Then-]

You are forced to relinquish one of your senses. Choose.

[saintclaire]

[Kim has no idea what to make of this blue machine the size of an elementary school kid, or how it stays upright with a head so large. She can only wait through his silence, looking politely interested, a vague smile on her face. Yes, she is a Willing Participant.]

Well?

[He's going first, after all. :)]

[mechspeed]

As I do not possess a sense of taste, it is the obvious choice. I would fulfill the sacrifice forced upon me while remaining at optimal performance in the aftermath.

[That’s probably cheating but his machine logic dictates it’s the clearest path to “winning” the task he’s been hypothetically given.]

[saintclaire]

[It does strike Kim as a cop-out answer, but who is she to police that? But if everyone blasts through questions just like that, this list is going to get real slim.]

That's convenient. Do you have a sense of smell?

[mechspeed]

I do not. It would also be an acceptable choice.

[His brain did the equivalent of booting up random.org and 50/50ing the two answers, really.]

I primarily perceive the world through visuals and audio. I do possess a limited sense of touch, but it only simulates sensations of pain and injury.

birbs

[beenwaitinglong]

Little hardcore for my usual tastes. But you can't deny they've got those harmonies down.

[Emerging from the cafe with a briefcase in one hand and a paper tray of four coffee cups in the other, Godot smirks up at the ridiculous sight before turning his attention back to Kim. He gives an acknowledging little nod of his head.]

Ms. Wexler. I see you're also keeping busy. [A gesture to his briefcase.] Settling in well?

[saintclaire]

[At his voice, Kim's head pops back up with a snap, mid-laugh, and she immediately schools herself into something approaching respectability... but her expression stays bright.]

Godot! Yes–– lots to do. The Department of the Enma has a bit of a staffing problem, so I'm taking the opportunity to jump in. What faction did you contract with?

[beenwaitinglong]

I guess the Sutoku Alliance snapped up my contract before the Enma could. [Being a prosecutor (now) and all, he fully expected to be put to work in Hell's own version of the district courts.] So it would seem the tables have turned for both of us.

[He gestures at the table beside hers.]

Mind if I set up camp? It never hurts to do a little networking.

[saintclaire]

Not at all, sit. [She reaches to close up her books, stacking them up in a neat pile, and then she gestures at the birds over their heads.] Assuming these guys don't drown us out.

[And she turns her chair around so she can face him better at his table.]

How is it so far?

[beenwaitinglong]

Mood music.

[He has a seat at the other chair, setting down his briefcase and his carrier of coffee. With a gesture, he offers one of them to Kim, because he's a gentleman.]

Well, if I had to ascribe a word to it, I might choose... eclectic. [There. That sounds nice and neutral.] Quite the ragtag crew. Though I have to say, "diversity as a strength" seems to be working out better than expected.

And how about Enma? [A wry grin.] The way some people pronounce it, you'd think the very word tasted bad.

the gift of song

[invinciblemikey]

(oh, was she having any difficulty concentrating? here's one more.

it's more out of boredom than out of the need to really help her, it feels a tad bit good to see her show a bit of despair... but here, let's try to fix it. he has an extra pair of earphones in his pocket, and a connector. he's bought it not long ago, building joint activity objects since toman will soon all come under the same ceiling.

sitting, he just puts his phone on the table after setting it into a more instrumental, classic tune. not what he would listen to, mind her, but he knows it's neutral enough to help her think, and he tosses her a pair of earplugs before setting his own.)

[saintclaire]

[She lifts her head the moment she catches someone in her periphery, unwilling to be seen having a laugh by any stranger, but it's too late –– here he is, and he's not even a stranger at all. Her expression sobers up, at least temporarily, while she puzzles out what he's here for.

She picks up one of the earbuds and holds it up to her ear. Politely surprised:]

I wouldn't have taken you for a classical fan.

[invinciblemikey]

Not really. I read once that it makes you smarter, though - you're smart, so I thought it'd be for you.

(a simple shrug of his shoulders, taking one of the books she already put away and opening at a random page. words, words, words -- difficult vocabulary... he even pulls back a little bit, blinking.)

... You're definitely smarter than I am, can't understand any fucking word on this.

[saintclaire]

[Kim listens to that with the slightest pinch to her brows. Her reply is crisp even when her eyes soften.]

It’s not smarts, just studying.

[She sits forward, craning her neck to see what he’s struggling with. It’s dense to her too, but it’s a language she understands, even if the approaches are different. She remarks:]

You should probably spend some time with it. It might be useful.

[invinciblemikey]

It's not for me. It's not a life I want to pursue.

(he notices how her expression is no longer totally in tune with her tone. maybe she'll notice, too, he's calmed down around her as well. perhaps, the beginning of an understanding?)

Did you want to do anything else when you were my age?

if you don't mind a late tag!! || gift of song

[aceslow]

[ Just as Kim Wexler is attempting to study her law notes outside of the cafe, Kim Kitsuragi is just leaving, a coffee and sandwich in hand in hopes of sitting outside and having a pleasant afternoon, only to be greeted with a raucous noise. He can't help but grimace at it, debating if it would be more restful to simply retreat to his quiet, stuffy (depressing) apartment.

His eyes flit over to where another woman seems to be having very much the same day as him and gives her an empathetic little shrug. ]

It could be worse, [ he quips, voice low and gentle, with a distinct French accent. ] They could have decided to be polka enthusiasts instead.

not at all, i love it!

[saintclaire]

[That's a surprising accent, in a place like this. Kim looks up, a pen poised between her fingers. Amused:]

I think a little bit of accordion might sound like a festival of some sort. This? [She gestures up at the birds with the end of her pen.] Awful. I have a headache in my future.

[aceslow]

Spoken like someone who hasn't been inflicted with hours of polka music on end. I far prefer this. To each their own.

[ There's also the little fact that this is more aligned to the music Kim listens to for pleasure than most of the pop that's played on the radio, but that's neither here nor there. His eyes flit down to what Kim is reading - not to pry, but absolutely to pry - then back to her face. ]

You're new here, aren't you? Another Lost Soul.

[ Nobody who's been here for long seems to have much vested interest in little things like the law. ]

[saintclaire]

It's not as far of a jump from what I'd usually listen to.

[She's spent a significant amount of hours over the past ten years squirreled away in law libraries and reference rooms, doing paperwork with the likes of Stereolab, Komeda and Laika.

But it's his assessment of her status here that puts the slightest smile on her face, some stab at being friendly before she says what she's sure is going to make her very popular:]

I am. Kim Wexler, attorney for the Department of the Enma.

[aceslow]

[ Kim's brows rise in recognition. ]

So you're the other Kim. [ He shifts the food and drink that he's holding to one hand before offering her one hand - clad in a dark orange driving glove - to shake. ] Nice to meet you, Attorney Wexler. I'm Kim Kitsuragi, of the Sutoku Clan. I was a police officer back home, but the Department didn't see fit to make use of my experience once I got here.

[ Nor have they made use of any ex-cop's experience, he's noticed. ]

I assume you were an attorney back home as well. Most aren't so eager to immediately check out the local laws. That's what tipped me off in the first place.

Breaking the ice

[threateningly]

[This whole thing is so ridiculous, especially considering this is Enma, and half the people here are useless in Sannan's eyes. So it's with dull feigned interest that he takes these questions on.

However, ever observant, he notes her list.]

It looks like you've narrowed yours down to fewer than I have. If it's better for you than asking about precious objects and family names, I'll gladly let you ask.

[saintclaire]

[Kim glances at Sannan, and then at his list –– she figures it's fair game, if he's looked at hers –– and she abruptly feels the absurdity of how tightly she's narrowed it down by comparison.]

A lot of these just feel too personal for work. [She flashes him a smile, curt and professional.] Tell me what you're reading or watching lately.

[threateningly]

[He nods slightly, as though he agrees that it doesn't suit this work environment as he's come to know it. Questions and banter might have suited his previous life better, but here... well, he thinks he's surrounded by idiots sometimes so he really doesn't take the opportunity.

This question is easy enough.]

I studied classical literature when I was younger, so lately I've been trying to read entrenched sort of classics here, what little there might be. Not the pulpy things, in other words. Poetry has been a bit easier to find.

[saintclaire]

[Classic being relative to time and space is a thing that Kim would not have thought about twice just a few weeks ago, but the thought gives her an amused look now.]

I bet the classics here are pretty different, with all the youkai. ["Youkai" as said by an American woman trying very hard to get it right.] Anything good in particular?