jigokulogs | 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

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[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.

[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?

[He respects her trying to say it right, honestly. Unlike SOME foreigners in his home time period, ahem.]

Some of it is similar to my home, considering the concept of youkai comes from there. I did read an excellent collection of poetry recently that addressed societal inequality in addition to traditional themes. It was partially haiku, which always... makes me nostalgic. The title of the anthology escapes me right now, but if you're interested I'll get back to you with it.

[Poetry may not have any particular appeal to her, but social inequality piques her interest easily.]

Sure, I'd take a look. Where in Japan are you from?

[He writes a note on the corner of his paper to get back to her on the poetry, and responds while writing.]

Most recently, Kyoto. In the 1890s. You seem... well beyond that year, though it's odd to say that. I hadn't interacted with many non-Japanese people until I came here, so I always get this strange sense of people being beyond me, so to speak.

[She wonders idly what her progenitors were doing in 1890. Wherever they were, they were poor. She just nods, guilty as charged, and takes a sip of her wine.]

New Mexico, United States, in 2004. This place must be as foreign for you as it is for me.

It could be worse. At least some of the people make it tolerable.

[Color him genuinely interested in the rest, though.]

"New Mexico"... I've never even heard of it. What's it like?

Sunny and dry. Lots of desert and mesas –– they're steep hills with flat tops. [She hadn't known what they were until she moved there.] It used to be a Spanish colony, a long time ago. Most cities and companies are still named that way.

[Mesas. He'll commit that to memory. It sounds like a place he'd like to go, if only it became possible after finding the cure for his condition. He kind of misses brightly sunny places.]

I see. I've never been as far West as Spain, even, and certainly not to the United States. I'd probably be thoroughly confused by the names. [But he sounds oddly pleased about that.] Have you been to Japan?

[She shakes her head and smiles.]

Never. I'd only seen it in movies and pictures, which left a pretty dated impression.

I get the sense that it's easier to travel in the future, so I'm always curious.

[Interesting, though.]

Dated in what way? Surely it wasn't things like samurai or swordsmen... That would be from my time.

Easier, yes, but expensive. I live on the other side of the globe.

[But she smiles, maybe a touch embarrassed; there’s no shame in her interests, certainly, but it’s not something she usually talks about.]

I’ve seen some samurai movies. It’s just that a lot of the movies I’ve seen were made before I was born, so I’m sure they don’t reflect Japan today.

I suppose you'd be hard-pressed to go that far if it costs so much.

[He pauses, then smiles.]

Movies older than you are... I wonder how accurate they are. Admittedly, I know of them by description only. I've never seen one.

[Kim feels the cavernous chip on her shoulder about money grow a little deeper, a little broader. Her smile lingers anyway.]

Historically, culturally, maybe they're not quite so true to life. But people are people, no matter what era it is. [Who can argue with the way Rick looks at Ilsa, the way Walter just can't give Hildy up, the way Buck just couldn't pass up a chance to seem greater than he was?] Not to say every movie is a piece of art, but the worthwhile ones stand the test of time.

September 2022 Mingle!

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Oh my god horrendously embarrassing: typoed the year earlier it should be 1860s

all good!! i have to keep charts for my historical characters just to remember, it's nuts