3

[stubboarn]

Who ⬤ ENMA + whoever’s unfortunate enough to get swept in this + whoever wants to help!
What ⬤ September substory #4: bounty-hunting!
When ⬤ [ hand gestures ]
Where ⬤ [ … hand gestures ]
Content Warnings ⬤ blanket tag for violence, will update as other things come up.




RELEVANT OOC LINKS

Dimitri post
Link in the Faction page
Update link in Dimitri’s OOC CR/planning post
September substory page

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OOC

This is the LOG for the bounty-hunting substory in September! There are several threads in which this log is divided in. Here’s an explainer – each one is identified as to whether it’s ENMA-specific or OTA. The descriptors are vague by design: I'm leaving it up to players to figure out the nuts and bolts of how they wish their thread will go, and whether or not their characters will team up with officers or pull in friends from other factions to help out, etc. They're really just more of a guide as to what you can expect from the log!

1. ENMA // OFFICE WORK – is your character more the office type? There’s a need for several warrants to be written up for all the poor unfortunate souls who’re going to be detained. This is for you! Feel free to specify your own location where it works for you/your thread partners; in general, I’ll put the default as Kaigo-no-bou.

2. ENMA + OTA // EASY MODE – if your character is more inclined to go the diplomatic route, this is the option for you. NPCs here only need some intimidation and a bit of force in order to get them to comply. Locations can be anywhere, up to you/your thread partner/s where you want to detain people and meet your quota (there is none, but you know) for it!

3. ENMA + OTA // HARD MODE – if your character is more the violent type, this one is for you! NPCs here are more likely to be aggressive or desperate, motivated by money, greed, or petty grievances against something or another. Locations can be anywhere and is up to you and your thread partner/s. NOTE If your character wants to escalate it to flat-out murder, that’s your choice!

4. OTA // CHILL OUT DUDE – This one is just a meet-and-greet, before and/or after the job! Swap stories, meet people, scold your coworkers – sky’s the limit. As with all things, unless you want it set elsewhere, the default is some cafeteria in Kaigo-no-Bou for the setting, just specify in the thread subject where you want it to be!

5. OTA // MISTAKEN IDENTITY – are you from another faction and would like to be arrested by our illustrious department? Now’s your chance to experience this grief first hand! DISCLAIMER Dimitri is not responsible for your ass getting arrested. Go bail yourself out.

As well, there will be a HANDWAVE thread. This is for anyone busy who needs to close off a plot – just give us a small writeup as to what happened if you feel this needs to be noted for everyone. I’ll leave this up to your discretion as to what needs to go here!

Dimitri himself will be going back and forth doing detaining/entrapment, and office work. If anyone wants to meet him / harass him, here’s your chance to do so. If you want something substory-related with Dimitri that's more of a private interaction, hmu on the WILDCARD thread.

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LINKS FOR RP

ENMA // OFFICE WORK
ENMA + OTA // EASY MODE
ENMA + OTA // HARD MODE
OTA // CHILL OUT DUDE
OTA // MISTAKEN IDENTITY
OOC // HANDWAVE
WILDCARD //


For anything else, you can contact me via PMs to this account or over at discord – whether in the game chat, journal PMs, or discord (wrryypugnant #6666).

Comments

[rank1]

A stick, a sword, a beam katana, he couldn't care –– it plucks at his sense of selfishness that he isn't feeling Blood Berry's thrum through his grip, but it's just a tool. He is the weapon, and he's already warmed up. (No, he doesn't care how cheesy that thought is.)

"Kamui, eh?" he says. It's interesting, but not a deterrent. What's a little bloodshed between friends of friends? "He'll understand. He knows what I live for!"

He moves fast, then, with a few quick steps into swinging range, bat drawn back for the blow. Head-height, with a yell.

[killtime]

If she's being honest, she'd have to admit that she prefers him with the glorified stick. She remembers the beam katana — she remembers feeling it up close and personal, a scant inch from her face when she'd scrapped for survival against his cursed doppelgänger. It's not an experience she's keen to repeat. This scenario is much more comfortable. She doesn't have to think much. She can just trust her instincts, those centuries of muscle memory, and the familiar weight of her labrys in her hand.

He's not subtle either. But it's not as if she dislikes that. Not judging by the mean grin on her face when he lunges at her, bat swinging. The force of wood smashing into wood when she blocks with the haft of her axe is enough to rattle fucking bones.

It's hard to say how long they go on like that — blow for blow, back and forth, pushing. All Andy knows is that by the time she has Travis on his back with her axe pointed at his throat, her muscles are burning, her chest heaving with the effort of catching her breath. She can feel the bruises already forming all over her body. There's a trickle of half-dried blood getting tacky at her temple, matting her hair.

"Not bad," she offers, still a little breathless, "You're kind of fun, Touchdown."

[rank1]

When he'd first arrived, Majima had been like one of those high-level enemies just off a tutorial map, the ones meant to show a player just how puny they are. Give 'em a reason to come back to their humble beginnings, set up the delayed gratification just so they can see how far they've come. Travis had relished running at it anyway. Reload old save, back at it another time.

But this one, oh, this one feels like something else.

The look he gives her through his aviators is dark; who can say if it's even visible. Breathing feels laborious, and it's a triple whammy: the exertion of someone who will make him work for it, the way he'd hit the ground and felt the air jump out of his lungs, the extra weight of a baseball bat after years of cutting through soft people with a hot knife. He's gonna feel that in his shoulders for a week, and that'll just be the cherry on top of the rest of the marks.

He spits back, like an asshole:

"Only kind of? It's a bit late to hold back."

God, he's going to be so fucking pissed if he dies in dress pants.

[killtime]

Andy's answer is a bark of a laugh, short and crisp with just slightly too many teeth showing to be friendly. The shape of her mouth is sharp, her dark eyes gleaming with a mean humor as she leans down towards him, nudging him under the chin with the one edge of her axe. It's not quite a threat — the steel only barely presses against skin — but the possibility of blood makes it more than a tease.

"Don't push your luck," she answers dryly.

Still, it seems she doesn't mean to kill him — no death in dress pants for Travis Touchdown today. Instead, she withdraws her labrys, giving the man a wry little look before putting her hand out to help him up.

[rank1]

Travis waits a beat, looking up at that hand with narrowed eyes, but he reaches up and claps his gloved hand into hers. Getting vertical makes every part of him sing out, but that's nothing a brief grit of his teeth can't handle. A knee sinks as he puts weight on it, but he bucks up anyway. Getting his ass kicked is no excuse to be a bitch about it.

"Yeah, yeah," he says, dismissive. "So who the hell are you?"

[killtime]

No tricks — she braces to pull him up, her grip steady and strong until he's properly upright. And if she notices the way his leg nearly gives out, she does him the courtesy of pretending not to. Instead, she answers his question with a noncommittal shrug of her shoulders, as if her identity isn't a subject of any particular importance or interest.

"I'm Andy."

Just Andy. As if that would mean anything to anyone.

[rank1]

"Travis," he replies. But she knew that.

He pulls his hand from her grip the second he's up, and then immediately paces away. It's more of a limp, but if they're both pretending, it works for him. He's just gonna stand out of her range, scowling up a storm.

"Let me guess, you saw me try to kill Kamui?"

She's gotta give a pretty big shit about the guy to want to fight for him on sight, Travis will give her that.

[killtime]

The whole incident was a little more than that — she didn't just see it happen, and there were moments when she'd been genuinely afraid she wouldn't be able to stop that cursed copy from hurting Kamui — but it seems beside the point to clarify that technicality now. Besides, she doesn't much feel like explaining what a close fucking call it was to the man himself. Instead, she gives him a pointed look, the dryness of her voice unrelenting.

"Something like that. But apparently he's choosing not to hold a grudge."

No, Kamui wouldn't. He'd practically been like a puppy, metaphorical tail wagging when he told Andy about Travis.

"I'm not as nice as he is."

[rank1]

"Yeah," he says. "You've got some real bitch energy."

This is thoughtless, spoken off the cuff like she doesn't still have an axe in her hand, but there's not exactly a ton of heat there, either. There's a shred of respect there for someone who could best him. Hey, is this how they all felt, the ones he put on the ground and refused to finish off, relishing a better fight later? No wonder so many of them never came back.

Travis rolls his shoulders experimentally, looks at her plainly. Kamui? A grudge?

"He tell you how we met?"

[killtime]

She can't argue with that. Real bitch energy is more than fair. Andy only shrugs in acceptance, apparently not entirely put off by this description.

"Something about being sent to kill your ass?" She probably shouldn't say that with so much nonchalance, but given present company, it's probably no surprise for shit like that to be disturbingly casual. It isn't so far off from how she met Kamui herself — pointed a sword right at his throat that day they'd met. "You spared his life, and you two have been soul-bonded ever since. That sound about right?"

Andy also knows about the fat cat. But that seems like a detail for another time.

[rank1]

Travis' chin drops a little, like it might hide the quirk to the corners of his mouth –– that involuntary confession that the description is touching to hear out of a third party's mouth. Still, he waves a hand dismissively. This chick's a fucking stranger to him. Hearing her describe their friendship that way should feel like she's walked into his motel room and made herself at home.

"He say it just like that?" he says, bluntly. "Soul-bonded?"

[killtime]

She probably would have made herself right at home. This woman's the fucking type — and it wouldn't be the first time either.

"No," she responds readily, "But it sounded that way. He's a little too honest with that shit."

Not that she would change that about him. She likes Kamui. She likes how earnest he is when it comes to his people. She likes being one of those people. Maybe that's part of why she's stuck by him this whole time.

"Why? Am I wrong?"

It's clear from her tone that she won't buy it even if he tries to say that she is.

[rank1]

Travis stops meandering around; he wants to say go kick rocks, bitch but he's the one left scuffing the toe of his shoe against the ground, so to speak.

"Nah, sounds just like him."

Travis might be a difficult person at times, but he's no liar, and Kamui... well. Kamui is ooey-gooey half-melted chocolate under a hardened candy shell, sometimes. It's not that hard to see, either, once you know what's under there.

"Sucks that he's blowing my cover, though. I worked pretty fuckin' hard to get the reputation I have, you know."

[killtime]

Too honest, the both of them. Birds of feather, in that way — and Andy supposes she isn't really surprised either.

"The fuck kind of reputation is that?" she quips back dryly, slinging her axe back over her shoulder and leaning to one hip, "I might be one of the only people in this shithole who's even heard of you, and I have a feeling I got the biased version."

With Kamui being all ooey-gooey and all.

[rank1]

His mouth bobs open, then closes again as he mentally pulls off his blinders; he's been a lot of things to other people over the past fifteen years, but two things have been consistent, and that's being a loser and being a bloodthirsty loner, but that was there. This is here, where no one's peddling snuff films of him killing people, where there aren't idiots taking a go at him to get what he's got. (Whatever that is.)

"Nah, you just got the insider version," he replies, finally, a little bit of heat on his voice.

Fuck, being vertical is starting to feel like a drag. He's gonna sit right down on the pavement. There we go, gritting his teeth as he goes.

"I'm just not a team player." He glances her over, a little more lingering than truly necessary, entirely unsubtle. "You?"

[killtime]

Andy seems intrigued by that answer — or at least a bit amused. The corner of that mean mouth quirks upward ever so slightly as she eyes him in return, her attention just as blatant as his. Sure, the man doesn't seem to like her much — and she hasn't given him much reason to, more intentionally than not — but she's starting to get it now, a little. The whole Travis Touchdown thing. Why Kamui likes him so much.

"Me?" she echoes wryly, giving her axe an idle twirl. "I don't know. Came here alone, didn't I?"

That's not really an answer. The truth is, she is a team player. She can be, anyway — when she's not too busy being obstinate. This is a woman who is often obstinate. And probably more willing to fight than she should be. If there was any doubt about that, she kills it when she goes on dryly.

"You're eying me like you want to have another go."