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

Kisara | Tales of Arise | Enma

[sisterlyshield]

01. Breaking the Ice [Enma]

[Aside from the food in the Autelina Palace, Kisara has never been surrounded by something so bottomless. She can easily remember days in which she and Migal simply struggled to eat. It's a strange and ironic twist that she's in her current circumstance and eating better than she had for a long time. Maybe she should feel a little more guilty about it, but she also understands that it's a good way of keeping up her strength. She can't be a valuable member of the society here if she doesn't take good care of herself.

She's just sitting down and getting a look at the clipboard accompanying the table she's been ushered toward and before she even takes a bite, her eyebrows are knitting with a great deal of thought.

If you could talk to any one person now dead or alive, who would it be and why?
Name a gift you will never forget.
What is the hardest thing you have ever done?

Some of these are remarkably serious questions that she's rapidly trying to figure out how she's going to avoid talking too much about the more sensitive subjects of her life.

And you. You're the lucky one she's joining. She gestures to the clipboard, looking a little incredulous.]

Did you get a look at these? Enma must be taking this really seriously.

[One has to wonder if this information is being used for anything other than purely conversation. Enma does not strike her as the sort to make conversation for the sake of conversation.]

02. Gift of Song [All]

[It's not what she thinks of when she's defining music. On the contrary, she's finding it... remarkably annoying. And something of a headache. Chin pointed up, she's watching a magpie on a perch, happily shabadabadia'ing away. She can't reach it from where she's standing, so she steps up onto the next best thing, which is a collection of unevenly stacked crates that look anything but steady and will likely snap under her weight and pressure if she steps the wrong way.

But she's offering it... food. That she's probably taken from one of the local street shops. Leftovers most likely.]

Come on, bird... Just. A little. Closer!

[See this delicious food, bird friend? Don't you want some? To anyone else, the sight of Kisara poised like so, just about to topple off where she stands, wiggling her arm to a singing magpie probably looks laughable at best.

Meet Kisara, captain of the guard, and the opposite of professional bird catcher.]

03. Wildcard

[Everything else squeezes in here. Feel free to either contact me via PM, on ofthesky, or grab me from the discord server.]

01

[mechspeed]

[Metal had glanced at the clipboard, but it was put back down onto the table before Kisara even posed her question. Not only is he of the same mind regarding the openness of this little group activity, a lot of it doesn't even apply to him anyway. Guy has never read a book in his life.]

I believe this is what is referred to as "small talk". Even amongst humans it is not particulaly popular, correct?

[sisterlyshield]

I don't know that I'd call it 'small talk,' so much as I'd call it prying.

[Because several of the questions on said clipboard are extremely nosy. Or maybe she just views them that way because of who she is and her various experiences. Just her luck someone would ask her all the ones she doesn't want to answer.

The more important thing is that this... is not a human addressing her and Kisara does, in fact, double take, but is relatively good at covering up her momentary surprise.]

No problems talking with people, but I think some of these questions can be a little hard-hitting.

[mechspeed]

Yes. I would not care to answer many myself.

[The double take is noticed, but he doesn't comment on it. It's not that she wasn't good at hiding her surprise though, it's that almost everyone has reacted similarly so he was expecting it ahead of time; the only exception has been annoying scientist types acting all annoyingly inquistive because hey cool robot

So it's fine. Her politeness is good.]

Furthermore, many are tailor made for organic life forms such as yourself. There are several questions I am incapable of answering quite literally.

[It's actually only a few, but his life experience is sorely lacking and that isn't because he's a robot.]

[sisterlyshield]

I guess that would make sense.

[All things considered.

Kisara’s quiet for some moments, evidently thinking about how to actually approach that proverbial elephant in the room. She’s also trying to figure out if she remembers seeing anyone else who looks like… him. She decides that ‘him’ might be safe and if it’s not, she can always be corrected later on. Youkai, maybe? No. Perhaps not. She doesn’t really know anything about the youkai, honestly, or what they really even are.

Maybe they are something akin to zeugles.]

I haven’t seen anyone else here who looks like you. Is there anyone else from your world here?

1

[saintclaire]

[Kim is going over the questions between sips of wine, pen in-hand, crossing out some questions and circling words in others. It's practiced work, like any documentation. She glances up when spoken to.]

No kidding. [She shakes her head.] I haven't seen an icebreaker like this since college, but even then, they tried to avoid anything this personal.

[She takes another sip. Dryly:]

They might as well ask us what we're in therapy for.

[sisterlyshield]

[Kisara laughs just a touch, perhaps a bit thankful that someone else is in agreement with her, especially considering what she's heard about the Enma and some of the other members. Nice to meet some that have some sense, however.

She picks around the food on her plate, still looking over the questions for a moment or two before drawing her attention onto Kim.]

I hope they're not expecting us to use these questions, because I'm thinking of just. Not.

[Kisara appreciates some following of the rules, but... within reason. And she doesn't see the benefit to the questions provided. That's not a way to get to know someone.]

I'm going to guess it's just an idea of what they expect. Doesn't seem they're looming over our shoulders or anything like that.

[saintclaire]

We could always make our own.

[She finishes striking off the last question, and as if done with it, turns the whole page over to start brainstorming new ones.]

Room could be bugged, but that's probably far more effort than it's worth. They're probably just satisfied to see us talking to each other.

[She smiles.]

Kim Wexler, by the way. I recognize your voice from the orientation, but I don't think I got a name.

[sisterlyshield]

[Kisara quiets for some moments, thinking about the possibility that they could be eavesdropped on. It’s entirely possible. She doesn’t like it, but it could very well be. Probably entirely within the realm of the feasible.

But when Kim continues, she leans onto a forearm and she smiles.]

It occurs to me that when I was talking about what I did back home, that I didn’t exactly introduce myself.

[Shortsighted of her, really.]

I’m Kisara. It’s nice to meet you.

02

[fibrillate]

[someone smaller and faster darts in, dropping their birdcatching net behind them to rush in and try to stabilize the crates. they're not very quiet about it, which probably isn't good for what the person they're trying to protect is doing, but that's a problem for later.]

Hey, watch out—you could hurt yourself up there! [the concern is real; they look up with their hands holding the stack of crates in a straight line. maybe that'll keep things stable enough for this other person to climb down.]

[sisterlyshield]

[Of all the things that Kisara is prepared for, someone trying to stabilise the crates beneath her is not evidently one of them. In fact, that catches her almost so off guard that she has to take a moment to regain her balance.

Her attention shifts off the magpie in question and onto her would-be assistance.]

Didn't mean to cause you any concern. I wasn't planning to stay up here long. Doesn't seem like it's interested in what I've got anyway. Give me just a moment.

[Just the moment for her to get down. And once she has, she's righting the way her armour sits on her.]

Thank you. Sorry about that.

[fibrillate]

[levi holds the crates steady just long enough for the person to get down, then straightens up to full height and notices, like most people, that this person still has a few inches on them.]

Hey, don't worry about it. I just didn't want you to get hurt. These magpies are... a real problem, and we have enough of those to deal with. [they're a little curious, though, of one particular thing.]

I'm surprised you haven't had them flocking to you. They love shiny things, and your armor is definitely the shiniest thing around here. [a pause, and a playful sort of look.] Unless you're preparing for battle with them?

[sisterlyshield]

I don’t know that I’d call them a problem, per se. Maybe a little difficult to handle.

[Annoying. She means annoying, but Kisara is just a little too nice to start in with that. Perhaps to her credit.

When Levi makes mention of her armour, she looks it over fondly. Although she’s come to this new situation, this new circumstance, she has continued to keep it in good condition. That someone else takes notice of that is a high compliment. She prides herself on her equipment upkeep.]

I didn’t even think about that, actually. Back home, all the bird-like zeugles didn’t seem anymore interested in me than they were anyone else. Maybe in spite of how my armour looks, they find me a little imposing.

1

[kikuichi]

[Norimune's drinking his glass of wine when Kisara speak. He lower his glass back onto the table, next to his plate of food (which have small portions of various food, since he wish to try them out).]

I did. Seems like they think it'll make it easier for us to start talking and get to know each other.

[The question about meeting someone hover in his mind, and there's only a few people that may apply for him.]

[sisterlyshield]

I think they didn’t read what they put here, because there’s stuff that they provided that would make most people I know just clam up.

[Herself included, but perhaps it’s because the Dahnan people have been mistreated for so long that the best thing one can do to protect themselves is keep that information to themselves.

She issues a little laugh as she picks at her plate.]

You seem completely nonchalant about this, though. Is this not your first time at these little gatherings?

[kikuichi]

Oh, I know. They likely wish for us to start talking, regardless of what topic we pick.

[In a way, talking about the questions... count? From a certain point of view. He chuckles.]

Why, yes. It's not the first time we gathered around fine food and mingle here. The questions is new, I'll give you that.

[As for back home? It's a different matter.]

[sisterlyshield]

But this is just another day in the life for you it seems.

[Kisara smiles, taking his answer into consideration. It seems that this will not be the last time something of this nature happens. Tilting her head, she takes a moment to nibble off of her fork before she continues.]

I’m a little surprised that the people here have been so personable. I heard some questionable things about the Enma and the people working with it. Not that you have to, but is there any information you might be willing to part with for a new arrival? Anything you think I should be aware of, that is.

[And she understands just how subjective that is.]

02

[empression]

[ Haru has been watching this for some time now, but has opted not to say anything, because quite frankly... she does not want to be the reason for disrupting Kisara's balance. She's so precariously posed that the slightest distraction could throw it all into chaos.

So. Hi, Kisara. You have an audience member who is choosing to keep her mouth shut for now. ]

[sisterlyshield]

[This whole thing is… not working.

She can’t say how long Haru’s been standing and watching her make a fool of herself, but after a few more moments of flailing her arm, it’s only because she drops her chin in a sigh and spies Haru from the corner of an amber eye that she just about loses her balance from where she’s posited. As she abruptly catches herself, she steps off the crates just as they collapse into one another.]

Well—

If I’d stayed there any moments longer, that could have been me.

[Issuing a laugh, Kisara turns her attention onto Haru.]

How long have you been here? You should’ve said something.

[But she can guess easily as to why she didn’t.]

[empression]

Ah, for approximately four minutes? I thought about speaking up, but you were very focused and you weren't on steady ground, so I was worried that it might cause you to lose your balance.

[ And she would have felt terrible if Kisara came crashing down, whether she was actually okay or not. Sometimes it's best just to not risk it at all.

Then again, it looks as though Kisara had spotted her and almost slipped anyway. ]

[sisterlyshield]

Wouldn’t have been the first time. My armour’s not as heavy as it could be, but it can be a bit troublesome. It’s definitely not built for every situation.

[Such a magpie catching.

Kisara’s taking the time to brush herself off, making sure there’s no actual damage or scuffing to her armour, but she seems to be in remarkably good spirits despite the birds and their annoying musicality.

Dohalim would be going nuts, she’s sure, though the fact that she thinks of him so readily is a concern all its own.]

Sorry for causing you concern. Had any luck with the birds? You look like you could sing and they just might flock to you, Haru.

01

[emet_sulk]

[ She ends up at the table of a rather stern and taciturn man. He's not making much headway in his questionnaire, with very few of them answered.

When he notices movement, he glances up and warily watches her sit down. ]

I am simply going to assume that we answer what we feel comfortable answering and use it as a way to 'break the ice', so to speak.

[sisterlyshield]

[As Kisara seats herself, it dawns on her that this very unamused-looking man is probably the only person she's seen actually answer the questions. Everyone else she's spoken with has been about the same as her—rather apprehensive to do so. And instead, she's spent a decent amount of time carrying on conversation without relying on some of the more prying inquiries that have been supplied to them.

Although she has to wonder...

Was she supposed to answer them? Because she's probably not going to.]

I'm impressed that you thought to answer any of them, actually. I thought they were just supposed to be used to speak with some of the other Enma members. Rather, I guess I was hoping they were more like guidelines than strict rules, as it were.

[emet_sulk]

[ He frowns at the paper. ] I answered what I could so that I do not have to repeat myself. I don't understand some of the questions, quite frankly.

[ He taps the page with the top of his pen. ]

For example: what in the heavens is a 'cartoon'? Or a 'movie'? A video I can guess as being something which is viewed as it closely resembles a similar word in the Garlean tongue.

[sisterlyshield]

I…

[Kisara can’t help it. It’s probably inappropriate for the moment, but all the same, she looses a laugh.]

I’m actually in the same position myself. There were a lot of questions that I looked at and realised I didn’t know what half of them were. Can’t answer something if I don’t know what it is. I think given the situation, however, it’s perfectly fine to say that it doesn’t apply to you. If you can’t answer, then you can’t answer.

[Her expression relaxes into a smile and she calmly takes a bite from her plate before eventually continuing.]

You’re not the only one coming into that, is what I’m saying. I’m not going to be demanding any answers out of you. I’d like to think no one else here is going to either.

[But with what she’s been hearing…]