March 2022 Mini Event

[jigokumods]

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The Night Parade is fast-approaching and each faction will be busy with their own preparations.

1. SHUTEN CLAN

The Celestial Phoenix Casino, a fairly popular casino in the Shuten territory, is overdue on its protection money. This money is sorely needed for parade preparations. Unfortunately, the casino has decided it doesn't need to pay up because they've hired some new unaffiliated muscle. Neither the manager nor their new muscle are the type to listen to reason, so be prepared to exert some intimidation and force to convince these new bodyguards to take their business elsewhere.

The brute squad working for the Celestial Phoenix seems to be made up of several different youkai. Some of them are more human looking than others, but you'll notice no Oni. Even independent Oni wouldn't dare turn against the Shuten Clan. Even lacking in Oni, these thugs are armed to the teeth, swinging several deadly weapons and even a few firearms. This could get rough, so be prepared for the worst. Take the gangsters protecting the Celestial Phoenix out or convince them it’s not worth it.

Once inside, you'll discover that the owner, in a panic, has locked himself inside the casino's value with the protection money owed. This might take some doing to get open...

2. SUTOKU ALLIANCE

The Kappa want to be left alone and the Daitengu has asked Sutoku Alliance members to assure their wishes are respected. Members are tasked with convincing people to stay away from the Kappa's riverside facilities by whatever means necessary. Of course, you may want to take a look for yourself to see what they’re being so secretive about. That’s not recommended, if you don’t want to get into trouble.

It’s not just strangers who are nosy, though. Retinues from both the Shuten and Tamamo clans are making an appearance and asking why the inspections are taking so long. Why are the Kappa dragging their feet? The Alliance prefers to avoid direct violence, so it's up to you to talk to these clan captains in a way that convinces them to leave the Kappa alone.

If you're curious enough to dive deeper into the Kappa's business, however, even your Alliance membership isn't going to keep you safe. The Kappa themselves seem to disappear from sight the further into the sewers you go, as if invisible. Preventing yourself from being spotted by a security camera or a patrolling Kappa is almost impossible. Cover your faces, stick to the shadows, and you might just notice that... they’re building something down there.

Something for the Parade? Who knows? But it’s definitely not decorations or a float...

3. DEPARTMENT OF THE ENMA

The parade route for the Night Parade needs to be "cleaned up". The Department is tasked with getting the low level street gangs and squatters to clear out. The homeless population will resist and may not be so easily persuaded to give up their spots. Your best bet is to offer them food, booze, or shelter for the night. The street gangs will assuredly fight back. Use your strength or your wits to get the job done.

The gangs will not typically be that tough, most don’t want to step up to the Department's goon squad too heavily lest they wind up in a cell for the rest of their lives. Still, some might be hopped up on encouraging substances and try to escalate. Don’t worry, though. You have the authority of the Enma on your side! Don’t think they will get away with waving a weapon in your face.

The homeless, though, lack strength or weapons. They are more fueled by desperation to keep their spots. Winter hasn't been kind to them, after all, and they don’t have much respect for the Enma's authority. Their belligerent behavior is loud, and often violent despite their absence of means to properly defend themselves. At worst, they’ll probably try to use biological warfare. Don’t ask what's in those bottles...

4. TAMAMO CLAN

Parade costumes need to be designed, crafted, modeled, and then likely mended knowing the rough and tumble yokai. The textile shops and tailors of the area need Tamamo Clan members to help them out. Costumes vary from extremely ornate to extremely sexy. These costumes need to merge form and function, for the Tamamo clan parade marchers that means they need to be able to sell their specific wares while wearing them. (wink wonk)

None of the costumes are floor ready and the shop bosses urge you that these cannot be seen by the public until they are ready. This won’t stop some peeping toms and tammies from trying to scope out the goods. Most of the voyeurs are spying for perverted reasons, but some are from shops outside of Tamamo’s influence trying to copy the designs for themselves. Either way, Tamamo Clan members aren't expected to be just pretty faces. So rough’em up.

5. TASTE TEST (ALL FACTIONS)

For those less interested in their faction's work, the restaurants in the Tamamo territory also need help finalizing their menu offerings for the Night Parade. Taste testers and creative cooks wanted! These aren’t just any dishes though and may have some interesting effects. One may be so spicy that everything burns, your face turns red, and you need to cool yourself off. Or maybe your dish is so good that you need to take a nap – it doesn't matter where you are, you'll just fall asleep right on the spot. Another possibility is a dish that gives you unstoppable energy – literally. It will make you want to get up and go and never stop moving. If you stop moving, it may cause a bigger problem.

Welcome to the mini event!

• If you have any questions about event content, please ask them here!
• If you have questions about the game itself, please check out the premise, FAQ, and rules pages.

Comments

[laughitoff]

[he...laughs, soft and hoarse, perhaps unexpectedly genuine...]

Really, I won't collapse from this. I've walked through worse, Gao Yizhi. You're very kind.

[he straightens a little as if to prove that point, and takes the first step, though he still has to lean on him to do it. very much lower, in his ear:]

And I have an ulterior motive.

((Re: the Kappa stuff, absolutely, as you can see from...this latest tag, laughs. He wanted to get the other factions to keep an eye out in general since he's suspicious of the Kappa's doings, but also knows he got really limited info, so this works out perfectly. As long as Yizhi doesn't fully namedrop him to Tenkohime he'll be like JUST AS PLANNED DOT JPEG about it.))

[baofeng]

Just because you have doesn’t mean you should be put through it again.

[Despite knowing Wei Wuxian for scarcely a month, Yizhi’s conviction sounds genuine.

Walking with Senior Wei’s weight on him feels arduous- even half-emaciated, the man is lanky and heavier than Yizhi can handle comfortably- but he tells himself that it is just a challenge of the flesh, something he can ultimately survive. Yizhi can’t draw away when Senior Wei leans to whisper in his ear, and it’s weird, because he’d almost mistake it for a proposition if this weren’t such a bad time for it. “Ulterior motive”?]

Huh? What do you mean?

[Even if the river and the kappa barricade are in the area, Yizhi hasn’t made the connection that that was where Senior Wei’d been - why would he? ]

[laughitoff]

We need to get indoors, in private.

[Yizhi doesn't have to suffer all the way at least; whenever they're near anything Wei Wuxian can partially support himself on, he does. this gets easier as they move back into the actual streets and the maze of buildings that makes up the city.]

[baofeng]

Alright.

[At least this suffering is building strength and one day Yizhi will be able to carry Zetian so good. Fifteen minutes later - a fifteen minutes indeed made much easier by Senior Wei’s assistance - the pair stumble through the doors of Wei Wuxian’s small apartment, and Yizhi drops his companion on the first seat he sees. He crumples into the next one with a groan.]

[laughitoff]

[the room's small and mediocre, the cheap faction-subsidized quarters that are all newbie-level Sutoku can afford. Wei Wuxian hasn't done much to improve it, though there are a few personal touches. the desk they're both sitting near is littered with papers, some covered in haphazard shorthand and illustrations that aren't immediately decipherable; a corkboard's been set up on the wall above it, with a couple of loose ink drawings pinned up on it. there's a small glass bowl resting on the windowsill, a few carnation flower heads floating on the water within.

Wei Wuxian can feel himself twitch with the immediate and trained need to offer hospitality -- to find some drinks and snacks or something -- but all he can really do is sit for a bit, hunched over, elbows on his knees and head in his hands, as he catches his breath as well.]

--ah--I can't believe you've gotten me out of trouble twice now, ha. That was close!

[baofeng]

[Another time- perhaps even hours later on the same night- Yizhi might admire the decor, and how it reminds him of home. Right now he’s slumped back where he sits, also breathing heavily.]

Really? What happened?

[He takes a deep breath, then stretches out his legs. His work isn’t done.]

And- do you have a kettle, something I can get you water from? It’s so indecorous, but we can just, [wheeze] pretend it didn’t happen.

[He shares Wei Wuxian’s internal mortification- a guest should not be using their host’s utilities like this on the first visit- but right now he doesn’t have the fucks to give, They can invoke some “boys will be boys” rule.]

[laughitoff]

[he laughs, breathlessly, and motions to the kitchen area; there's a water pitcher and a kettle to be found there, and some (unfortunately all spicy) snacks stowed in the cabinets]

Help yourself...get yourself something too if you want, please. Ah, sorry, sorry, but we can mutually let each other off this time, we have a good excuse.

[he's already feeling a bit better, though, time and support and relief letting a little strength creep back into his muscles. he'll test his feet again in a few minutes]

Ah...and, I was being chased by Kappa. I don't think many of them went far from the river, but they might have sent some of the recruited guards after me, so...

[YOU KNOW, NO BIG]

[baofeng]

That’s- not good. [Thank you, Young Master Obvious.]

[Yizhi takes a shaky detour to look out the window for any signs of pursuers. To his credit, he does seem to be taking the news calmly- seriously, but without losing his head.]

… I don’t see any sign of them, at least. [With that, he moves towards the kitchen to start pouring a glass of water.] I guess you were investigating in the sewers? Did you find anything? And did the kappa, um, poison you or something? I’m no physician, but your meridians don’t look good.

[On top of being Young Master Obvious, the dude's also Young Master Please See A Doctor apparently.]

[laughitoff]

Aha, truly, don't worry about my meridians. I promise you I know they're in that state, but they're not going to kill me. It's a consequence of some techniques I've used in the past, that's all.

[he's panicking inside as he reflexively smiles and waves off the concern (how much did Gao Yizhi see? it's not like they're in the cultivation world, they're in hell, but still, but still--) and immediately attempts to distract from it. haha, who needs to worry about Wei Wuxian problems! there are much more interesting problems over there to look at! please look at them! oh god.]

As for the kappa, ah. Well, I don't recommend getting acquainted with their weapons, I got a nasty shock, but for the most part they just chased me out once they caught me in the sewers, yeah. I--I got a look at what they were building, but it wasn't much--or it was much, but I only saw one section. Maybe you'll recognize it? You know more about technology.

[baofeng]

Huh? Is it really okay-? [For a moment, he’s confused. But it’s an innocent confusion, without any suspicion that Wei Wuxian might be hiding something- he’s confused over why he’d mistaken it for something serious.] Guess I overreacted. You looked unconscious and I thought it was something scary… maybe the bad lightning made it look like that. Sorry.

[He walks over and hands Wei Wuxian a glass of water.]

The kappa are building something? [Yikes!] Yeah, tell me about it. What’s down there?

[laughitoff]

[he nods his thanks and sips at the glass and breathes, clawing past the panic when Yizhi doesn't question him further and changes the subject. his smile gets a less fixed; after he's drunk a little, he feels like he can hold a conversation again rather than just faking it until he makes it.]

It's a machine. Metal, seems to extend pretty far in the area of the sewers it's in...they have it hooked up to pipes that are feeding it a lot of water.

[he tugs his phone out to show the photo or two he'd had time to snap, but since they only show a small section and the lighting in sewer tunnels isn't great, it's probably not very illuminating.]

[baofeng]

[Yizhi takes the phone and squints at it, zooming in to view different parts of the dark photo.]

Hm… it’s hard to tell much from the exterior… but yeah, I can see the connective pipes. Did you see if the water was going into the machine, or was it pumping something out into the things it’s connected to?

[It might also be poisoning the water systems, is Yizhi’s theory.]

It definitely doesn’t look good. The kappa are up to something.

[laughitoff]

It was going in. I think it needs the water to run, though I couldn't tell you if it's to drive mechanisms inside, or to cool it, or fuel it, or what. But that's not to say it couldn't be coming out the other side I couldn't see, too...

[por que no los dos, if they're debating theoretical machine-related disaster? maybe the Kappa engineers believe in multitasking.]

The thing is, it's being kept just as private from other Sutoku folk, too. But it's also being endorsed by the leaders? Ugh, I'm no good at these things.

[baofeng]

Hmm… without some kind of blueprint, we just don’t know for sure. Sorry, Senior Wei.

[He hands back the phone, frowning.]

Maybe they don’t trust their rookies with their plans? With so many factions in a city… I guess it’s inevitable that someone has a plan brewing at any given time. [Yizhi fidgets with the hem of his sleeves, thinking hard.] Do the Sutoku Alliance seem like the sort to make a grab for power from what you’ve seen?

[laughitoff]

With the way it's set up, I'm more inclined to believe the tribe leaders would be more interested in grabbing power from each other than from other factions, but it's hard to judge how stable any of the factions are...

[they can spec a little longer on the inner and outer faction workings -- Wei Wuxian will ask Yizhi his own first impressions of Tamamo as a political group, though he also says he won't be offended if Yizhi is vague or doesn't want to answer, and means it -- and on debating the machine a little more without reaching a good conclusion.

when they can both see Wei Wuxian is nodding off but doesn't seem to be in further danger of internally messing himself up in his own home if he's just resting, it won't be hard for Yizhi to gently extricate himself. he may have to either accept or dodge Wei Wuxian trying to press some 'must-try' spicy snacks on him to take home as he goes out the door, as a little bit of repayment for his help, but there are no other obstacles or Kappa ambushes tonight.]

we can wrap here!

[baofeng]

[Yizhi will say honestly that he’s not sure- he hasn’t managed to get many interactions with Tenkohime after the first contract-signing, and his experience so far has been at the bottom of the political ladder. But with Wei Wuxian’s permission, he can try to relay this information to her (without revealing its source) and see how she reacts.

Eventually, the hour grows late; Yizhi manages to extricate himself with the minimal amount of spicy snacks. Ah, at least he has more of an excuse to swing by again to gift some food of his own?]