jigokulogs | March 2022 Mini Event

March 2022 Mini Event

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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.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh. Um... [He's too groggy to object, and the hangover-like fallout from the yakisoba pan's effects is already beginning to set in.] All right.

[Which is all the confirmation the oni girl needs. While Kamui's massaging his aching forehead, she's jabbing a finger at a large, bug-eyed plush duck-- no, it's got a tail, Kamui realizes, it's a platypus.

And so, he carefully picks it up and drops it in the toy chute, for the incoming queen of hell to snap up and squeeze tightly in her arms like a vice.]

There you are. Now shoo for a little bit, dears - you can come and play later.

[the children, happy as can be to see that results came out of this, scurry off to follow their new leader for now, as she has earned their undying respect. with them out of the picture, Emily can turn back to Kamui, worry creasing her brow to witness his...predicament.]

Mr. Kamui...do you need help getting out of there?

[He looks SO SAD sitting in there, pretty much like a lost kid himself. The inside of the machine's actually sort of cozy, seeing as it is for large plushies, but how in the world did he get in here to begin with...?

Kamui gives a disconcerted glance through the glass at Emily, then at the toy chute, then back out at Emily again.] No, I can make it. I think. [His head disappears without further ado, only to pop out of the chute a moment later.

Behold: the Angel of Absolute Zero, the Observer who freed himself from the shackles of observation, the perfect, complete Kamui Uehara-- clumsily wedging himself out of the prize slot of a crane game. In front of a girl.

What a day.]

...Would you like to go somewhere else?

[a hand is extended to him, steady and with nothing in it. no strange promises in her tone, no jokes, no judgement - just a person looking at another, and making a choice. something's amiss here, and what she can do, she wants to do. if he'll allow it.]

[Kamui looks, and feels, like a mess as he struggles back up to his feet from the ratty arcade carpet. If it'd been poison in his food instead of some prank, he'd be dead now: he needs to do better here, to be far, far more careful.

And yet here still is Emily. Her voice is calm, an anchor in the endless electronic blare and whistle and chatter all around them. She hasn't even laughed, not that he'd have judged her for it. The situation's certainly ridiculous enough. But her words are sure, and her hand is outstretched. Emily looks him in the eyes.

For the space of a breath, Kamui sees Travis Touchdown mirrored in Emily's open expression, wavering like an echo, like a voice through water. (He'd be right at home here, wouldn't he? Shoving fistfuls of yen into his jean pockets, going on about this game or that.) He'd stood before him too, his hand empty and extended, his words sure and his gaze level with Kamui's own. The memory twists in his chest, and, fleetingly, it's visible on Kamui's face-- the sting of missing someone, the bittersweet pride of having something there to miss in the first place. He wishes he were here. He wishes he could see him like this: having the dumbest misadventure of his life, and daring still to reach for someone else at the very end of it.

I trust you, Kamui recalls, so I'll try, as he takes Emily's hand.]

Please. I need some peace and quiet.

Edited 2022-03-15 06:35 (UTC)

[her touch is gentle, warm, and she helps him get back to his feet. no comment on why, no judgement in her gaze - only an acceptance, because this can be pieced out later. something in his actions strikes chords she doesn't want to voice aloud, someone hurting in a way that can't be mended with a bandage, with an antidote. so she'll do what she can, and restrain her own curiosity until he's come back to himself.]

I can get you both. Follow me.

[and to help more, she doesn't speak again. the path will be familiar, after a point - it's the way to her apartment, tucked in Sutoku territory. but it's a sight quieter than the arcade, and when she opens the door, he can see she's been hard at work fixing up some of it - a few more things to make it seem lived in, down to a few flowers in a vase.

it's calm, here. no one would look for him in this place. and when he figures out where he wants to settle, without being asked, she goes to the closet and retrieves a blanket, putting it over his shoulders so he has something soft and warm to hold onto. it's her instincts, to give what she can, and if he needs somewhere to collect himself, to pull his pieces back together, then so he does. this too is a doctor's duty.]

[They're at Emily's apartment in no time. He remembers the way, he's been here once-- but, mostly, Kamui's putting all of his focus in bringing himself back from... whatever had just affected him.

Her silence, as it is, is the best choice she could've made. Anything else and he'd have felt coddled by her. Instead, he takes a quiet seat in a (surprisingly intact, for salvage) chair, allowing the warmth of the blanket and the pull of Emily's presence to put the world back under his feet again.

Eventually, he speaks. He shrugs the blanket off his shoulders, smoothing it over his lap.]

Apparently, the Tamamo have drugged some of the festival foods. I don't know if it was malicious or just a prank. Knowing the way things work around here, I suspect it was only the latter.

[she waits, patient and simply moving about the room in eyesight, boiling water for tea and putting away what she got while she was out. and when he's together, when he wants to speak, then she turns to him.]

They do that - I've noticed it happening with frequency in the club I work at. Not out of maliciousness, but something about the mind being altered for freedom, or just a way of being. What exactly did you feel?

[probably not an unexpected question to come from a doctor.]

...Tired. Very, very suddenly, and sustained, too... like I'd been slipped a sleeping pill.

[ms emily can he have some tea too tho.... the sight of her bustling about like normal, too, is a comfort.]

I usually sleep light, and on time. It was, um. Disconcerting.

[of course he can. that's why she made two cups, one she brings over now that he's alert and conscious. it's simple green tea - by scent, looks, and given the fact that he would have seen her prepare the whole thing. no hidden anything.]

So that would explain your disorientation...any lingering effects currently, or do you feel relatively normal now?

[he mutters his thanks to her and holds the steaming cup of tea in both of his hands; Kamui pauses, considering the way he feels now, then shakes his head.]

No... I'm all right. I'm already somewhat uncomfortable in big, noisy spaces like that. [A holdover from childhood.] Everything at once just caught me really off guard, is all.

That's a relief. If it was still in your system, we'd have to wait out the rest of the effects. But as it is...physically, I think you'll be fine, as long as getting out of that machine didn't injure you any. And the children are apt to forget what happened in a week, so long as if you see the prize winner that you smile if she accosts you. Quite a force, that one...

[she can't help but chuckle a little to remember it.]

[He looks only a little sheepish as he raises the cup of tea to his lips.]

That little girl could give Toraguma a run for his money. I wouldn't dare cross her.

[Kamui breathes in the tea's aroma-- half to enjoy it, half out of lingering hesitation. He takes a sip anyway. He's fine, of course.]

You've been very kind to me, Emily. [Again.] Even for a doctor.

[sipping it herself, he'll see that it's perfectly fine - no strange tastes, no effects. just tea, meant to warm him.

at the compliment, she modestly looks down, unsure of how to reply in a way that doesn't sound too self congratulatory.]

If it's kindness to make you extract yourself from a prize machine, well then.

Past that, I mean.

[He can't help but mirror her; here they sit, two not-quite-strangers awkwardly contemplating their teacups together.]

You didn't simply send me on my way as soon as I looked all right. Twice, although our clans are at odds, you've shown me to your home. It's... [More time than most would've spared for him, by far, in that cold and impersonal 25th Ward. He trails off. Takes another sip of tea, picks over his words.

His words aren't as confident, now, but they're spoken earnestly.]

I would be happy to call you a friend, Emily. Even here.

[his words are surprising, but she looks up to him, and her expression softens, the smile she wears a true one.]

I'd be honored if you did, Kamui.

[and this is the truth - as swift as she is to reach out and aid others, to give of herself, the word friend implies more than that, a mutual conversation.]

Our groups might be opposed, but as people, we have no more reason to divide ourselves along those lines beyond "they said so." That's not a good enough reason for me to deny proper care. If we can be friends in spite of whatever is going on amongst the higher-ups, I'd truly like that.

Thank you.

[It's slight and shy, half-hidden by his cup of tea, but his smile is still the easiest and warmest one that Emily will have ever seen on Kamui's face.]

I agree with you completely. A contract is a contract, but I'm not interested in partisanship. It's all arbitrary, really... we have more in common with each other as lost souls than the local clans and their leaders.

Exactly. And beyond the contracts, they haven't given us much reason yet to draw our own divisions. While I'm sure there are reasons and old grudges and a myriad of things that will reveal themselves, for now I can only bid my patrons understand that I would rather stay with those displaced.

[her own tea warms her hands, and in the distance, there's the sound of a crowd passing by.]

Besides, if I see someone I can reasonably help, with my skills or my time, I'd like to help them. Why should I ask their affiliation before I do so? Injuries and illness come to us all.

Edited 2022-03-28 03:38 (UTC)

Of course. It must be especially true for you, as a practitioner.

[It's mid-day, after all: maybe people are starting to leave the office. Kamui only spares the nearest window a short glance before he turns back to Emily, taking another drink of his tea.]

To be frank, I'm sure we're being deceived by this place somehow. There are too many loopholes in this world for it to make much sense as a true "hell". And I'm certain I'd remember it if I were dead.

[Quite certain.]

I'd rather help my fellow captives, is all.

[it's a subtle thing, the way Emily's hand tightens just a little on her cup when Kamui declares he'd know if he was dead. but she sips from it, and realigns herself enough.]

You can help me a little more if you answer one more question. That sandwich you had when I found you - was that the drugged item?

[if these are being paid for, then she can't do much. but if it's free, she has so many things to warn people of.]

[Emily's reaction is almost invisible. He's trained to notice the slight adjustment in her grip, however, so Kamui does. Such a reaction could mean anything: that Emily fears death, that she is one of the many who are certain they were killed on the way to Jigoku-cho.

Kamui holds onto it in his mind nonetheless. This one's intuition, not his eye.

But back to business:] Yes, it must have been. It was the only thing I'd eaten that was served on that clan's territory. I paid for it, but there were samples of it and other items.

So it stands to reason that nearly anything on that territory at present might have different effects...oh, I can't truly believe that they'd do that and leave people ignorant of the end results, or perhaps it's culturally known to be a risk you take? Or it's all in due course for the Night Parade.

[she'd like to not distrust chefs based on their affiliation alone, after all.]

That's why the samples. So you could test the effects.

A man I met told me never to take food from ayakashi. [Thanks to the auto-translate, Emily might pick up that it's a slightly older term.] I would believe it as a cultural risk, personally.

Especially after all those drugged drinks at the welcome event.

[That was the first time he'd been here. Maybe it was for the better that the two of them had both skipped out on it.]

I see.

[she nods, deciding to not say at the moment, technically, he was drinking tea with one in the room.]

Caution is admirable, but if you insist on never taking food from them, you'll only be eating your own cooking from here on out. Therefore, I say simply be aware of what you choose to patronize, and use your own discretion.

Or, if you wind up feeling ill in the future, call me if you can manage it.

[hibiki-chan.... bestie.... he's not due to meet you for another thread.

Kamui smiles modestly:] I'm not a terrible cook, but I'd still rather enjoy eating out. I'll take your advice, Emily: hopefully you won't need to rescue me again.

[would you look at that. he's polished his cup of tea off.]

Thank you again for giving me a chance to rest. Let's have one more cup together before I go?

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March 2022 Mini Event

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