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

Yamori Kou | Sutoku

[nightcalled]

Grossery Gang

[ He has no idea why he's here, except for the fact that he's been asked to help out. Which is fine. Just... why are they sorting through these gag toys? Just because? Is there a particular reason? Are they planning on reselling them? Is that the reason behind all of this? He's really not sure, but... here he is. He furrows his brow and jerks a particular one out of he way as it tries to spurt water at him. With a shake of his head, he tosses it straight into the reject box. He glances at his neighbor with a curious look. ]

...what exactly are we going to be doing with these? Just, you know, sell them or something?

[ He's trying to make conversation to pass the time. ]

Wildcard

[ Have something else you wanna do? Let me know. ]

[fuckdogramagra]

With any luck, this is just a bonding exercise.

[ Being a no-star rank tenured Sutoku is...a little weird, sometimes. It affords Tama enough space to do things like text for twenty minutes during the initial discovery of what Sutoku is doing this time, but it doesn't afford him much in the way of answers. Still, he's trying to bop around and be helpful to newer faces. ]

I mean...having everyone get together to laugh about, and then trash some useless stock that can't be sold...that might give the right sort of "vibe" of what the Sutoku Alliance is about.

[nightcalled]

Kind of a weird bonding exercise.

[ Kou blinks, a little unsure. ]

But maybe it is the right vibe. I don't know - I'm new. [ He shrugs and offers a little smile. ]

What's your name? I'm Yamori Kou.

[fuckdogramagra]

[ Tama just heaves a sigh. ] And Sutoku's a weird Alliance...

[ He plops down, making a grimace at the toys and huddling his phone closer to himself. ] Ah, Mizumori Tama- I've been here for months now. Sutoku's boss, Daitengu, they...well, they have a sense of humor. But at least this is better than some of the other group things. [ He levels Kou with a deadpan. ] We had to go around and give businesses coupons as an apology, once.

[nightcalled]

...handing out coupons, huh? That doesn't sound too terrible. If kinda weird.

[ He scratches his chin, the work forgotten for a moment. ]

What were they coupons for?

[fuckdogramagra]

[ Tama gestured with his overly-charmed cellphone. ] Daitengu nearly got assassinated, but rolled with it by faking dead. Which caused instability for the businesses and other people under Sutoku's protection, who were very cross when the Daitengu then crashed their own funeral...and their idea of appeasing all those businesses was to have us hand out buy one get one free coupons for movie theaters, and gift basket snacks.

[ Tama's glasses all but slide down his nose. ] ...I got a job from one of the businesses I went to appease, but not everyone was so lucky. But with Sutoku, there's always someone who's dissatisfied with how things are run- part of being an 'alliance' than, I dunno, Shuten beating you up for stepping out of line, or whatever.

[nightcalled]

...huh. I guess faking his own death was one way to get out of an assassination attempt. Did you guys ever find the people responsible for that?

[ He shakes his head. ]

Getting beat up for having my own idea of what I want to do... not sure I'd like it over htere.

[fuckdogramagra]

We~ll...

[ Tama looks around, brows pinching, as if scoping out any nosing higher-stars. He's of the mind that sharing information is important for the newbies to understand the situation, but uh...some of the higher-ups might not exactly appreciate it. But once he's sure that the coast's clear, he starts back up again. ]

Supposedly, the Enma has called the culprit out as Haniyasu, the twin gods of earth and children of Izanami. The culprits used puppet bodies made from clay during the assassination if I remember right, as well as haniwa filled with curses to plunge the city in to chaos, but...I don't know if I'd trust the Enma's word, either.

[nightcalled]

So, I'm not exactly up on the different relationships or the reasons behind all of this, but... what's the reason you don't trust that explanation? And even if we take that explanation as true, what's the motivation? Do they just not get along?

[ He apparently likes to ask questions. ]

[fuckdogramagra]

[ Yeah, but Tama likes to answer questions so it's probably fair. Q&A is the real Sutoku Vibe frankly. ]

Well, Daitengu originally thought that the Enma was behind the assassination, but it seems like the implication is that Haniyasu wanted that to happen on purpose? It just seems too convenient for another force to be purposefully trying to make the Enma look suspicious, at least to me. [ Tama leans on his elbow and props his chin on his palm. ] The Enma and Daitengu don't get along, much like Toraguma, who leads Shuten doesn't see eye-to-eye with Tenkohime, who runs Tamamo. There's been relative peace lately, though, so nobody wants to risk ruining that...

[ He huffs, and gestures back at the toy stacks. ] And that is why we're doing a bonding thing like this, I think.

[nightcalled]

...that does seem way too convenient. Using a method that can be traced back to you seems like. Well. It's not a good idea if you're trying to assassinate someone and get away with it.

[ He stops working and puts his chin in his hands. ]

If you're trying to send a message, maybe. But... even then...

[fuckdogramagra]

Exactly! Whatever "beef"-[ He has to airquotes the English word, he may be naturalized for a 1920s guy but hes still a 1920s guy. ]- there is between the Enma and Daitengu, I don't think it just goes away that easily...then again, I don't know what it was still. I'm not even ranked, I've just been here half a year.

[ He resumes fiddling with his phonecharms. ] This is the stuff I wish we talked about with newbies, even before they end up in any faction. We're still united as lost souls first, in my opinion...and information is vital to making informed choices, isn't it?

[nightcalled]

Yeah. And they don't necessarily give us a lot to start. But then they want us to find information for them...

[ He frowns. ]

What else do you know about the faction? About Daitengu?

[sacrilegiousact]

[He glances over at Kou, having discarded a plastic toilet themed whack-a-mole game. Yeah. No thanks. He'll spare the world from having to experience that.

He glances over at the drinks that were set up for them, as if that answers the question.]

Don't think so. Probably throwing them out.

I think they expect us to do drinking games with them or something. To bond.

[He's too young to drink though. And this kid is even younger. Not that that seems to matter much here in hell.]

[nightcalled]

Ehhhh, I don't drink! Not even beer!

[ He frowns. ]

I'm way too young for that.

[ He sighs and chucks another box into the discard pile. ]

I'm Yamori Kou. Might as well start with that.

[sacrilegiousact]

Yeah, me too.

[He did work in a bar, though, and that was very illegal. Apparently underage drinking is just where the line is.]

Kurusu Akira. Nice to meet you, Yamori-kun. Seems we're in the same boat.

[nightcalled]

Kurusu-kun, hm? Nice to meet you!

[ He offers a little smile. ]

Are you new, too? Seems like there's a lot of us.

[sacrilegiousact]

Mm. Yup.

...When they told me I was in Hell, I kind of didn't think I'd be doing inventory management. But, them's the breaks I guess.

[nightcalled]

I guess even demons need to manage logistics...

[ He sighs. ]

What do you think of this whole place?

[sacrilegiousact]

There's worse places to wind up.

[This place has benefits such as... Haru is here. AND he's not in jail.]

Easier if you're not alone, though. Have you got someone looking out for you?

[nightcalled]

A friend from home is here. We're looking out for each other.

[ He puts his chin in his hand, not really caring if someone sees him slacking off a bit. ]

She's in Tamamo.

[sacrilegiousact]

[He nods. That makes perfect sense to him.]

I've got one too. She arrived before me, though.

But she's in Shuten. Which is probably worse than Tamamo. But at least it's not the Enma.

[nightcalled]

I don't know much about all of the different factions yet. But the Enma are sort of the police, from what I understand and the Shuten are a lot like the yakuza...

[sacrilegiousact]

The Enma are the police in a world where the police don't have the authority to police anyone, so in practice they're just another gang.

[He sighs.]

I knew an ex-Yakuza once. Nice guy once you get past how terrifying he is.

[nightcalled]

Ah, same here. I ran into someone who used to be in the Yakuza. Once he stopped trying to fight my friends, he seemed like a decent person underneath it all...