jigokulogs | September 2022 Mingle!

September 2022 Mingle!

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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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"Ugh. A magic school, then?" How dare someone take something as sacred as an institution of learning and ban technology from it. Donnie continues dismantling the toys as they converse, seemingly not hindered at all by the fewer digits or the thickness of his fingers. Anything he can't get grip or get into because of that is quickly fixed by a small set of tools he fishes out of his belt as needed.

"Yes, a magic school," Croix replied. "I can feel the distaste in your voice, you know."

She smiled, looking up from her own work.

"If it makes you feel better, when I came back as a teacher I successfully updated them for the 21st century."

Waves a hand. "It's not that. It's- rrgh."

Come on Donnie, you are not fourteen anymore, you are a grown-ass sixteen year old and you can acknowledge things that you don't understand. You can do it, buddy. "Back home, mystic powers and the like are often used as substitutes for technology, and a lot of the time by people who barely understand the quote 'magic' they're even using. They don't appreciate the work it takes to master and even defy the natural laws of science."

Kind of like how Donnie doesn't appreciate the work it takes to master magic. But y'know, who's concerned about that. Not Donnie, as he angrily dismantles a Potty Time Patty.

"...Well that attitude is just silly. They look at it all wrong."

She motioned with her screwdriver as she spoke, this clearly being a matter of importance to her. "Think about it; if magic is possible, it is part of the natural world. It may subvert what we see as conventional scientific doctrine, but what we call "science" is really just what we call humanity's collection of knowledge. What everyone called fact was different one thousand years ago, and will be even more different in another millennium. What we call magic is still part of the universe we find ourselves part of, and people need to stop looking at as though it and science are too completely different disciplines.

"The old witches in my world spurned technology because they saw it as a threat to their traditions. People in your world sound like they embraced mystical power without giving it proper respect. A smart individual would see them as two sides of the same coin, and find ways to intertwine them."

About the time she says "that attitude is silly," Donnie taps his wrist computer, because he is going to record this and save it to listen to over and over. He records everything anyway, sure, but maybe the way this lady puts words his innermost insecurities neatly organizing his bad feelings like she's literally in his head with color-coordinated dividers and a label gun appeals to him. Maybe he likes to- no, needs to hyper-analyze things until they make sense to him too, and for some reason the single exchange he's had with this woman is helping him find some semblance of peace with this whole 'you are magic and science' issue he's been having for the past two-ish years.

"...which is what you want to do." Technically what Donnie wants to do also, once he gets over himself. Relying too much on his tech makes him too vulnerable when it gets destroyed, but relying too much on his mystic powers makes him useless if they get locked way or, as is more often, he can't make them work right. "I have some experience with that, but just on a personal level."

"It's what I've already done," Croix responded proudly. "If you'd like, I'd like to show you how to find that balance in your own work. But first I need to work hard to regain what I've lost here."

Ah, right. That. "Just 'working hard' may not cut it. Seems like most people here are pretty married to this faction nonsense." Which Donatello finds counterproductive to any kind of individual gain. Sutoku doesn't seem to be as strict about hierarchy as say, Shuten, but it's not exactly a Silicon Valley tech startup, either.

Donnie returns to the task at hand, separating the toy parts much like Croix's existing system. "If whatever brought us here went to the trouble of sabotaging or taking our gear and-or powers, I doubt we'll be permitted to make much headway in getting them back."

"There seems to be a method that others have exploited," she said. "So it's possible. It might be more accurate to say it doesn't want it to be easy for us."

She shrugs. "Either way, I'm not about to leave my future up to the whims of a higher power. I've had my future taken away from me before, and I'm not going to let it happen again."

That's some intense energy. Maybe? He could also be not reading those vibes right. "Rolling over and admitting defeat isn't exactly the strong suit of a scientist, so obviously I concur."

Clack, clack. Another toy bites the dust. "So, do you doubt the 'contract' is legitimate?"

Croix had to think about that question. It took several moments before she answered.

"It doesn't matter if it is or isn't," she said with a smile. "I already have what I asked for thanks to this place: a second chance with my best friend."

"Your contract wasn't to go back home?" Donnie lowers his hex keyring, flabbergasted. "You'd be fine staying here?"

"My contract was to make things right with my best friend," she said. "She and I are living together right now, and well on our way to healing from the results of my mistakes. Home...has nothing to offer me, right now, and would in fact set me back further than I am now."

Don't tell Donatello I was in prison, she tells herself.

"Oh." For some reason, it hadn't even occurred to Donatello that there could be people like that here. Where home is the worse option, where being stripped of their powers, possessions, even their relationships (or most of them at least) could be an improvement to their lives.

He knows that his and his family's situation isn't what most people would consider ideal, but Donatello's never thought of their lives as unhappy. Never to the point of not wanting to go back. "...well, godspeed then. If it's that same woman who told me to check in with you, the astrologist, then it seems like it's going well." Because why would someone waste their time helping someone else they don't care for anymore? Donnie certainly wouldn't.

"That is the same person exactly," Croix says with a nod. She continues to focus on her work for the time being...before looking up.

"Tell me Donatello...have you ever had a best friend?"

"Hm? Of course." Doesn't look up from his own work, having gotten into the meditative calm of disassemble, sort, disassemble, sort. "April. She's human. I guess she's sort of like the family's best friend, but I'm her favorite." Of course Donnie is her favorite.

"...I see." She doesn't have enough knowledge to debate that, so she simply accepts it at face value. "And how does it feel that April isn't part of your life here?"

"Most of my family is missing here. Two of my brothers, our dad, April." All said very matter-of-fact, as if he doesn't have any feelings one way or another about it and is reciting passages from a biography he'd once read.

Clack, clic-clack. Another toy eviscerated and sorted. "Separation isn't any different from any other obstacle. I just need to concentrate on overcoming it." And, he has Leo. Thank the gods of science that he at least has Leo.

"...I see."

She looks back down at her work, before frowning and glancing back up. "May I offer some advice, then?"

"I won't stop you." But he is definitely wearing that patented I probably won't take it though expression that seems part of the teenage ensemble. These brothers, they generally have to learn things the extremely hard way. Just ask their father.

"...Don't isolate yourself. Don't force yourself to be alone."

She closed her eyes, and crossed her hands in front of her face.

"We all need connections. Celebrate the ones you have, even if they're absent. And don't ever let them go."

That intense energy again. Donatello gives Croix one of his unsure-ist looks, though only for a second as he hasn't stopped working with his hands the entire time. Mikey and Raph, they would eat this shit up.

But Donnie? He doesn't have those kinds of feelings, of course. He hardly has any at all. He's not thinking about don't ever let them go in conjunction with the bruised and bloodied face of his same-age brother, metal claws closing around him as his big brother desperately tries to pull him through a portal that's killing his baby brother to hold open. About how the best Donnie could do was just attack, desperately and furiously, the wild swing of a weak animal in the face of a hunter's double-barreled gun. And it had worked, barely.

Donnie's not thinking about that. He's fine. "...sure. Wasn't planning on it." Dear god he needs to change the topic immediately. "Segue, speaking of connections. Do you know of anyone with access to a foundry? We could always just smelt the metal components and repurpose them."

Croix saw that look, and it's enough for her to smile slightly. It was unsure, but...she hoped it was enough to get something of her point across. She smirks, and looks down at her work.

"I want to save the battery packs, but that's an excellent idea," she said. "I know of a place, but we'll have to pay a bit if we want them to do it. Perhaps if we pooled our funds?"

"How much pooling are we talking? It can't possibly be that much to just rent the facility for a couple hours." This boy doesn't understand the costs of some things for reasons that should not be investigated too closely.

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September 2022 Mingle!

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