[OPEN] Hell in Bottles

[fuckdogramagra]

Who ⬤ frogmarched / Kawase and fuckdogramagra / Tamamori
What ⬤ September Substories time baybee!!!! (also a general bookstore prompt, and some closed headers...)
When ⬤ All throughout September
Where ⬤ Literally anywhere in Jigoku-cho, Tama had gone mad over EMBER Go!
Content Warnings ⬤ Will add if they come up!

EMBER GO!: Substory #1
EMBER Go! may well have taken Jigoku-cho by storm- the amount of active users had jumped about as fast as the Enma Department’s sudden spike in "breaking and entering" calls. Not that, uh, Tamamori would know anything about that latter data point…because he’d not been caught yet, thank you very much! You can find him hunting for shiny Little Lost Souls all over Jigoku-cho, especially those of his close CR…what might be more surprising is that he’s roped Kawase along with him, who was decidedly not trying to hunt down little souls on his phone, but still seemed to look perpetually annoyed as Tamamori dragged him (literally sometimes) around the city.

DRIFTER GRIFTER: Substory #3
It’s been more than a week since the mysterious ’Drifter in Black’’s first con, and almost all businesses in Jigoku-cho are on high alert for suspicious individuals. la sonnerie is no different, except…well, the twin owners of the cafe have their non-existent eyes on the theoretical prize, more than anything. While Melody dreams of the social media boom that catching a crook would bring, and Harmony wonders if this would allow them to meet one of the faction leaders in person for helping out, Tama is stuck helping his bosses’ plans by keeping his eye on suspicious customers and disheveled wanderers while waiting tables. The only thing keeping him from losing the plot and suspecting random people is the presence of his much more level-headed boyfri best friend Kawase, who has a much better head for noticing suspicious individuals, as well as unraveling mysteries. Between the two of them, surely they’ll be able to catch the grifter- but feel free to distract them as much as you want. Tama’s still on the clock, after all, and it feels like Kawase’s been sitting at the same table with a view of the front door for hours.

IN PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE: General prompt
Dog Ears has become the favorite book store of the Aizu trio for a number of reasons. The impressive stock is certainly near the top of the list, and he’d come here to buy countless books for his projects, but Tama had never imagined he would be taking advantage of that selection to look at…children’s books. A "junior reader" corner had been set up to promote the Jigoku-cho READING IS FUN! program for young yokai, and that was exactly where a little two-foot tall frog was holed up, with a cozy-looking sweater on, and squeaky-sounding galoshes that were a bit too big for him. Every time the frog spotted a book that made his overly-round eyes (literally) sparkle, he would inevitably spot another and rush off to check it out. Honestly? Tama joked about being a father, but at times like this…he did sort of feel like one.

(On the other hand, Kawase seemed far less interested in fatherhood, and was more inclined to not read everything in the children’s section. Most of the time he ends up drifting off to the romance and classics sections, before returning to the father/son pair.)

[ Please let us know if you want only Tamamori or only Kawase; otherwise we’ll default to both! Frog Man/Kerosan also available upon request. ]

Comments

you can brackets if you want, i just finished this tag finally and went "...fuck, im not fixing it"

[fuckdogramagra]

It's a few days before Tama actually messages Matoba about meeting up at the cafe. There weren't any other customers in at the time- it was an early closing kind of day, with the twins off to prep for some underground concert thing they were going to (with Tama desperately hoping it wasn't for the band that the magpies had been so upset over...) -so he had the full run of the place for his 'taste-testing', gleefully standing at the front door, overproud of himself while spinning the keys on the ring when Matoba arrived. It's not a strawberry rollcake that la sonnerie has to offer him in the end though, but a slice of strawberry poke cake- still with the usual whipped cream and whole strawberries, but clearly the bright-red streaks of coulis were an attempt to catch the eye (and inst*gram accounts) of Jigoku-cho. It was above average, which was the standard that sonnerie existed comfortably within; not the best one ever, but comfortably above "average". It might be a little telling that Tama himself did not opt for the cake itself...but he's still a creature of seasonal cuisine, and persimmons have begun to flood the markets. Whatever thing he grabbed for himself smells faintly of maple syrup and citrus.

"Harmony-san- the older sister? -she was using me for my 'squidgey, warm hands' for a bunch of the test-runs." Tama rudely points at Matoba's cake slice with his own spoon, which at least hasn't been used yet. "Something about dough and butter and...whatever else behaving different when kneaded by hand versus...however it is those two pick things up." He'd never put much thought to it before the baking session; the sisters usually wore gloves around the cafe, but they were just kinda floating in the air rather than attached to anything. It felt rude to ask if it was magic or levitation or something, so he hadn't. "She tried to show me how to pipe the whipped cream dollops too, but said I have the strength of overcooked ramen."

...this wasn't really why he'd called Matoba here. Obviously so, since they were so isolated- but droning on like this was an important pretense of normalcy, at least for Tama. He always oreferred having a barrier around these kinds of discussions.

mood

[worldbent]

[Matoba arrives to a delightful little cake that did, in fact, exceed his very basic expectations for a strawberry shortcake; indeed, the rivulets of strawberry flavor and the spongey texture delighted him. He says as much, and then flicks Tama's spoon away with his own fork, with a lightning-quick motion and the loud CLINK of silverware that makes one suddenly unnerved with the man's reaction times.]

"Squidgey". Yes, I suppose as a human you would be much better equipped for such things. [Content to the safety of his cake, he scoops up another bite and shovels it into his mouth.] ... I'm not entirely certain of that one; oversteeped broth is sure to be strong, isn't it? Ah, but the noodles are so soft.......

[A corner of his mouth lifts, appraising Tama (or what was visible of him above the table) as if he even needed to look.] Yes, I see now. Does it really take so much work to apply cream? I never thought of it.

[Let him dally. They would get to business soon enough, and he was giving Matoba all of these openings.]

[fuckdogramagra]

[ Tama has to flounder to try and save his cruelly assassinated spoon, but it was a lost cause- it clattered over his shoulders, only making his desperate posture even more ridiculous for Matoba's cursory inspection. He only dropped his arms dejectedly and went to scoop up the floor-spoon after pouting and turning his nose up at Matoba's continued Matobaness, depositing the dirtied one in the sink and returning with a fresher spoon. ]

We can't all have archery muscles. Or sword muscles, for that matter. [ Hmph. Minakami was really unfair sometimes! why was he friends with so many jock-adjacent people... ] I know I wondered at it before, but I would probably be terrible at archery. I don't have the 'clarity of sight' needed for it. [ Says the man with annoyingly-perfect vision to the man with an ofuda-covered eye. ] My strength's always going to be what I can imagine...for good or ill, I suppose.

[worldbent]

[Oya... there the spoon goes. Matoba gives a flat, unimpressed glance at Tama's reaction time.] I didn't even hit it that hard, [He offers in his own defense, at the cost of Tama's.]

A common misconception is that striking a target is about sight.... It is not. Well, not sight. [He explains as Tama goes to replace his spoon, and swirls some whipped cream into the scoop of his cake.] And I think that you have the ability to focus that manner of Sight well enough. Your problem is not ability, it is control.

[He delivers the cake to his mouth contentedly.] Which is something that can be managed, with discipline. But you have to want it.

[He raises an eyebrow. This lazy wimp, learning self control? Hmm.]