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.

Welcome to the mini event!

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Let’s meet earlier. I would be honoured to show you the sights of Tamamo territory in exchange for the meal!

[It is a little known fact that Yizhi’s navigational sense is excellent. To be exact he doubts a single soul knows this at all, since he only uses it to cross the continent for Wu Zetian. Whether it’s because he grew up in a big house with avenues as impersonal as the streets outside - or that he has uprooted his life so much and so drastically in the last few weeks that the idea of “lost” and “foreign” is now familiar and comfortable - or that he truly has an unshakeable internal compass -

-easily, as if guided by starlight, Yizhi appears at the correct intersection ten minutes to the dot. The city lights color him like an aurora borealis. When he spots Wei Wuxian, he waves.]

Senior Wei!

[visibly startles a little at the address -- in another lifetime, cute juniors will call him Senior Wei, but in this one he was shixiong and then simply and fearfully Wei Wuxian and then accursed Yiling Laozu -- but waves back when he sees Yizhi, grinning from ear to ear. between that lighting up his face and the warmth of the district lights, he looks suddenly his age as he makes his way over]

You made it! I'm going to take advantage of that offer of yours, you know. I bet they show actual members all the best spots!

[I hope you’re ready to reclaim your lost 20s, Senior Wei, because Yizhi is a junior (technically so, as he’s younger and hasn’t founded his own faction yet) from a parallel universe and he doesn’t let accursedness get in his way! It would be decorous to do a proper greeting, but Wei Wuxian is clearly in an informal mood; Yizhi slapdashes the salute, his own smile a gentler reflection of his companion’s.]

That’s fine. What good are connections for, if we don’t take advantage of them to make our lives easier?

[It’s a well-heeled civillian’s salute if Wei Wuxian cares to notice. Yizhi straightens up and sweeps his gaze across Tamamo’s lurid skyline, looking for landmarks.]

I guess they do, if you want to spend time with beautiful women or handsome men. I also know an arcade with pretty good games. That’s in Sutoku territory, though.

[he notices, but doesn't bother with a salute himself, not after years out of the sects and little current desire to return to them. instead he laughs and slings an arm over Yizhi's shoulders; very informal, this man, if you let him be, though he also gently waves off the suggestion of anything improprietary...sort of?]

Ah, we can visit that another time when it won't require so much circling back -- or after dinner, perhaps, if we have the energy. As for the first, what need? Aren't I spending time with a handsome man tonight already?

[as ABSURD AS THAT LAST LINE WAS it wasn't actually that flirty in tone, more factual. water is wet; the neon of the city is dazzling; Gao Yizhi is handsome.]

I've found a few good places in Sutoku too, so we can definitely go around as much as we like, eh? No need to try and fit it all in one night.

Aiyo, Senior Wei-

[Yizhi fidgets, momentarily flustered, but regains his composure and relaxes soon enough. He recognises that this is casual affection, not a proposition of some sort. It doesn’t take much work to fall into step with the older man; like this they could almost be shixiong and shidi, out for dinner after a long day’s training. Except they’re not. This is a sort of vicarious living. Still, why not indulge in such fancies when they have the chance?]

Then there’s nothing this district can tempt us with. [Yizhi chuckles with a sideways glance at Wei Wuxian when he hears himself called ‘handsome’.] We can be above this place’s bargaining chips for a while, I guess!

You can ask me if you see any interesting signs. Otherwise, to the restaurant?

Ah, as you say!

[his eyes crinkle in a silent laugh at the implied return compliment. he appreciates it, though he's not self-centered enough to not realize how far he is from the heyday of his youth, and from fourth place on the most eligible young masters list.

To the restaurant. I promise I'll keep a weather eye out for the interesting...but not too much of it! Our eyes mustn't feast at our stomachs' expense all night, after all.

[Hey, people are into scruffy-looking! Yizhi’s into scruffy-looking. Throw a bit of smoky eyeshadow on there and people would be swooning in no time- though it’s a redundant suggestion, since Yizhi assumes Senior Wei isn’t looking for that kind of attention in the first place.]

Mmhm, that’s the problem with feasting, you overindulge one organ and forget about the rest.

[Yizhi is content to walk straight to the restaurant, though once or twice he will point out a bar with a particularly interesting house cocktail or a cabaret club with a good - not just sexy - routine. If Wei Wuxian asks to detour he’s happy to follow.]

[he's not, though if Yizhi ever decided to mess around with cosmetics while he was visiting Tamamo and asked him to be a model to try them, he'd probably laugh and oblige, all unknowing of the odd reflection it made of his own future.

he'll ooh and aah over the cocktails (though he doesn't have enough money in-pocket to risk truly fancy alcohol just yet, and owns up to it easily if asked), and at one club that promises something ridiculously acrobatic, he cheerfully asks the bouncer if they could just peek inside, only to be stonewalled. he's friendly enough about it that he doesn't actively piss the bouncer off, though.

he doesn't try to detour in the end, not really. Yizhi can even guess why: it's easy to see that he's just...still in the stage of being wide-eyed, almost like a child or a truly recent transplant to the big city, remarking on things like the great height of buildings and on particularly brightly-colored modern clothes and gadgets in the store displays. at least once Yizhi also watches realization slowly dawn as he scans the limited display of lingerie and sex toys in a racy shop's window, only for him to abruptly turn away and walk further down the street, a hand briefly over his face to muffle a squawk. things like that.

he also seems to notice that Yizhi seems less unfamiliar with it all, though, and his questions get a little probing in that direction around the time they get near the restaurant--]

Are you from somewhere on the 'modern' end of the scale, then...? We seem to be a very mixed-up group in that regard, ah.

Edited 2022-03-28 03:51 (UTC)

[Yizhi is secretly glad that they don’t get anywhere, since he’s not exactly made of money himself, not any more. But it’s gratifying to show someone around like this- Wei Wuxian’s wonder picks out things Yizhi hasn’t appreciated before, and when the young man nods along it is with genuine surprise in his eyes.

He’ll still react to the sex shops though. Yizhi’s not so used to living inside the red-light district, and when he’s with another gentleman (to him, at least), realising what shopfront they’re looking at makes him blush up to his ears. Oh no! They’re both, you know, so pure and upstanding! ~~He’s not thinking of Li Shimin or anything~~ (on the other hand he’ll make an exception if Zetian’s ever interested, if she’s down he’s down)]

Is your home different from this? That’s weird, when we dress and speak alike.

[It’s true; Yizhi will make his home wherever Zetian goes, but he exists like a native animal here, unruffled by the kaleidoscope of the city. From this perspective, he doesn’t realise how weird it is for him to have studied Confucius and also be wearing a smartwatch. Maybe Senior Wei lives in a more rural area?]

This city is very much like the one I grew up in - Chang’an. [If the name rings no bells for Wei Wuxian, the name he uses - 长安城 - literally translates to “City of Everlasting Peace”. ] What's your homeland like?

Edited (i keep catching typos in this tag LMAO) 2022-03-28 16:16 (UTC)

[Wei Wuxian is a little like Li Shimin, maybe in that you'd expect him to be an experienced scoundrel, from the way he looks, but then he just gets wholesomely flustered instead. terrible, terrible, he can't keep up a thick face this way at all! but who could keep up a thick face seeing such a brazen display out there for anyone to see?

(if they plan to hang out in Tamamo often, of course, they're going to have to get used to it, but right now they both still have the excuse that they're new.)]

Ah--well...

[that is strange, but they'll walk while he thinks, and Wei Wuxian will finally point out the restaurant's understated entrance, a curtain painted with goldfish and bubbles concealing the interior from the street. he also didn't seem to recognize the city name, though he does understand the meaning of it.]

Well...to pick out the biggest differences, there's no technology on this level, or cities with buildings this high or closely packed at all, no matter where you travel in the country. You're not the first person I've run into since getting here who seems like they're almost from home and isn't...someone from Liyue asked me about it.

I'm from Yiling, or Yunmeng, though, depending how you look at it.

[he pushes the curtain aside for Yizhi to step through]

Hmm… [Doesn’t sound familiar. ] It sounds like it could be a place in Huaxia, though, Liyue too. Weird how that is.

[He could ponder more on why Senior Wei’s world lags behind in technology- maybe they never got those first blessings from the heavens, or some history nonsense- but he’s no arts student, and doesn’t find much interest in navigating some other world’s history. Better to focus on the present.]

That means you don’t have Chrysalises either, right- [the restaurant comes into view, and its entrance is really something. How charming! ] Oh! This looks like a nice place.

We, ah--

[he pauses to grin and beckon him through, to the warm interior, all clean lines and welcoming cooking smells. it's a low-lit and classy little place, with a quality-over-quantity feel like many of Tamamo's establishments. a friendly hostess shows them to their table; Wei Wuxian winks at her and greets her familiarly, which she answers with a polite laugh. he just flirts as part of socializing, apparently.

only when they're seated, and their orders have been taken, does he resume the conversation]

We have chrysalises, in that we have caterpillars who become butterflies? But perhaps that has a different meaning for you.

[Someone should tell Lan Wangji that Wei Wuxian just socialises like this, in case he gets the wrong idea! Though it probably wouldn’t make a difference.....

Yizhi oohs over the menu like a sheltered socialite, making absent comments about how good everything looks. He ends up ordering something decently popular-looking. When Wei Wuxian brings up their conversation again, he remembers with a start what he’d wanted to do:]

Ah- yes, that’s one thing. But we have another meaning to the word. I’ll show you!

[Yizhi reaches into the folds of his robes; his clothes today are a soft mint like greenery behind fog, patterned at the hems with cherry blossoms. He pulls out an iPad.]

They’re like- well, we named our war machines after chrysalises, is the essence of it. There’s a myth that dead Chrysalis pilots reincarnate into butterflies.

[Okay, he pulls out a Huaxia tablet, but that’s basically an iPad. Yizhi navigates to his downloads history, because at the end of it all he’s still fresh out of teenaged boyhood and his download history is full of funny-chrysalis-tiktoks.mp4, and pulls up a random short video. He’ll prop the tablet against a salt shaker so Wei Wuxian can see:]

Edited 2022-04-05 12:56 (UTC)

[ Mechas. A mix of metallic beasts and more humanoid-looking robots are scattered across a vast arid plain, fiercely fighting an army of rotund hard-shelled monsters. The camera swoops in a wide arc around the Nine-Tailed Fox, backed up by several smaller Chrysalises. They work as a team, shouting communications to each other not unlike cultivators on a night-hunt, except five seconds into the video-

A Hundun flies from offscreen and TWHACKS the Nine-Tailed Fox in the face, bouncing off his helmetpiece. The Moon Rabbit shrieks as the monster almost hits him on the way down. The Nine-Tailed Fox yells: “Oei! Watch it, Li Shimin!” -as the camera swerves to capture a metallic blood-red bird battling a good distance away. The Vermillion Bird doesn’t respond, releasing a blast of concentrated qi that vaporises another Hundun trying to crawl up its wing.

“Gods-damned convict,” the Moon Rabbit swears from offscreen.

“Let’s move, let’s move!” The Nine-Tailed Fox calls as the camera pans back to him. The entire contingent follows his lead, heading away from the Vermillion Bird; leaving it strangely alone. There’s another blast offscreen, and the video cuts on another Hundun flying through the air in the background as the Vermillion Bird screams. ]

[Wei Wuxian does, actually, watch this performance openmouthed, because he was about to respond and then the words just plain went out of his head when the video started. his eyes on the screen are rapt, drinking in the dance of monsters, the noise of weapons and spirit metal and surprisingly human voices, both clearly-fascinated and thoughtful. he startles a little at the end, at the scream and the sudden cutoff of the video.

he's not able to get a good sense of scale from a recording, of course -- there aren't that many landmarks on the razed battlegrounds to make it clear how titanic these are -- but hell. even if the biggest Chrysalises were only a little bigger than human and were worn like body armor, this would be an impressive, alien spectacle.]

Sorry, you're saying there are people in there? In those machines that look like--I recognize the beasts, but--!

[yeah, he's excited.]

Edited 2022-04-10 04:17 (UTC)

Yes, yes! They pilot the Chrysalises from the head, through special armor that allows them to channel their qi into their Chrysalis.

[Senior Wei’s enthusiasm is infectious- or perhaps, Yizhi is just glad to have a friend to rave about Chrysalises to. It had been complicated to do so with Zetian, for whom Huaxia’s war machines meant something wholly different. But he’ll bring that up later. Yizhi pulls up more photos on his tablet as he speaks- he has to search a little for them, because back home he’d just look such material up on the internet rather than saving it to his tablet- but eventually he manages to find an infographic of the White Tiger standing next to the Great Wall for scale.]

They’re all different sizes- this is the White Tiger, it’s a Prince-class Chrysalis. Prince is the second-highest weight class for a Chrysalis, so most are smaller. And this-

[He pulls up a photo of a young man and woman posing against the Vermillion Bird’s gleaming beak. The man has a tattoo or mark on his face. The woman’s dark hair is piled high on her head, held in place by golden pins that resemble the Bird’s feathered crown. Yizhi’s voice softens.]

… these are the pilots of the Vermillion Bird. The Bird is our army’s only King-class Chrysalis.

[After a moment of unmistakable tenderness, Yizhi gets ahold of himself and continues.]

-it’s not all that amazing, there’s a lot of horrid stuff that goes on in the background. But despite that, these are our best defence against those monsters you saw in the video. They’re impressive and they’re the hope of humanity, still.

Edited 2022-04-11 12:56 (UTC)

[the reveal about the head, and the photo of Li Shimin and Wu Zetian against the Vermilion Bird for scale, certainly snaps it into perspective. he can't help but shake his head in wonder; each of those constructs is as big or bigger than the Xuanwu of Slaughter was, then. he'd walked inside the murderous turtle's shell before it had been killed. what must it be like to have something that big move like an extension of your body? an extension of you...?]

Ai, that's definitely on a different scale, ha! I've been in some crazy fights, and some yao can get pretty large, but nothing like this.

Are you a pilot of some kind as well...? Or are you friends with those pilots?

[he'd clocked Yizhi's tender look, too.]

It really is something to behold. And no, no, I’m no pilot. I don’t think I could pull off something like that!

[Yizhi’s deflection seems genuine. The cockpit of a Chrysalis is just too scary, too physically demanding. Not even his love and admiration for Wu Zetian could turn him into a pilot. Zetian’s right again about this; there are many problems love can’t solve.]

I do know the pilots of the Vermillion Bird, yes. We’re close. [they’re dating] But I can’t be too obvious about it back home, because people are kind of close minded about how many people can be in a partnership, you know? I don’t know if it’s the same over there. But in pilot pairs where the boy and the girl can actually Match without endangering the other, they expect them to be like husband and wife.

[His mouth twists as he says it, as if just realising how fucked up that is.]

… but yeah, they’re great. They have a bad reputation, but I don’t mind.

People with bad reputations tend to be the most fun...

[he startled a little at the reveal, though. it's not the idea of more than one partner; plenty of salacious extramarital stuff happens in the cultivation world outside of ideal political matches. see: Jin 'ruins everything with his dick' Guangshan, as an extreme example. but...husband and wife just because they partner up in battle, really? that seems like a poorly thought-out system, and he says as much.]

Not everyone who fights well together is guaranteed to get along in other ways, though...? Night-hunt partners don't always become cultivation partners, and cultivation partners don't always become marriage partners. What's the point of forcing them into that sort of relationship too?

[Yizhi’s response to “People with bad reputations tend to be the most fun...” is a modest laugh, half-hidden behind a raised hand; behind the hand he is smiling in complete agreement. Hell yeah. He’s into that shit.]

Well… what’s the point of arranged marriages in general? It’s probably something like that, using people as collateral in the pursuit of control. It seems like people in power don’t know how to keep what they have without hurting others. [Here’s hoping it’s different in this city.] But enough about me. I’m sure your homeland has many intriguing things as well.

It doesn't have to be big or dramatic, it can be your favorite dish from home or something.

Ah...

[the question makes him pause, innocuous as it is. the answer is, of course, Jiang Yanli's lotus and pork rib soup, but considering the circumstances, he's not sure he could talk about that dish without it tasting like ashes in his mouth. that's a lot, to bring to dinner with a new friend.

so, he covers.]

Ah, how can you make me choose! Yunmeng's really well-known for its cuisine, you know? And there are several old aunties who would pinch my ear if I didn't mention their hot dry noodles or their spicy baozi. I guess if I really had to pick only one place to go I'd take you to this one place that does amazing mouth-watering chicken, though...I haven't found anything like it in this city yet.

[Hot dry noodles? That’s popular in the south, from what Yizhi recalls. He really wonders if the same kinds of dishes taste the same from both their worlds.]

Is it? What a shame I can’t visit. [not really, because Yizhi’s not a big fan of spice. Not that he eats like the Lan clan, but spicy food is bad for the skin, you know?] Ah, that chicken sounds incredible. They really don’t cook it the same way here as back home.

No, they really don't! They're shyer with the spice in a lot of places, too. Ah, the food's still good, though, there's always something to be said for new experiences...

[winks at Yizhi]

Who's to say you can't visit, though? If some force can bring us here, couldn't the same force take us other places, someday, or couldn't we find something similar here that would do the same? I wouldn't mind a visit to where you come from, myself.

Senior Wei, what do you mean by that wink? If you wink so much, how will your future love know when you’re seriously trying to charm them?

[Yizhi retorts teasingly; but then Wei Wuxian brings up the possibility of worldhopping, and well- it’s true that if one logic-shattering thing has already happened, another might. If he is in “Hell” and Shimin, father-killer, is not, then what else could be possible?]

Ah… if we were to be realistic, you wouldn’t get to tour the Chrysalises even if you came to my world. They don’t let civilians see those. [His voice grows wistful.] But since we’re fantasising… it would be nice to show you around. I think Zetian and Shimin would like you. And after, we could tour Yiling together.

[Okay, this is deep in fantasy territory. It’s right down there with his old dream of running away to the mountains with Zetian. But before Yizhi can embarrassedly dismiss his hypothetical, their food arrives.]

[To their server:] Oh- thank you.

This looks good!

Edited 2022-05-09 06:33 (UTC)

[he laughs at that one, easy and sincere]

Ah, well, if I meet my future love someday, I hope they'd know. I'm serious so little of the time!

And, we can always wish, hm? Even if it doesn't seem realistic. We're here for such things in part, after all.

[the talk turns to lighter things after that; the meal and the company are excellent. it's a good night to have with a new friend.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

March 2022 Mini Event

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sorry for the delay! i'm dealing with some health stuff rn, so tags will continue to be sporadic ^^;

oh no! take your time, hope you feel better soon!

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[Iron Widow spoilers ment] also, do you want to wrap things up here?

here seems good!