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jigokufever2022-06-24 11:00 am
jigokumods) wrote in jigokufever2022-06-24 11:00 am
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June 2022 Test Drive
MAIN NAVIGATION
1. CLEAN UP
The curse has broken, finally banishing the oppressive air around the city and the many sightless eyes of the accursed haniwa. Life will have to return to normal now but first there is lingering clean-up that must be attended to:SHUTEN CLAN
The Shuten Clan is out in force to rebuild damaged storefronts. Eager oni appear in their festival happi, singing oni working tunes. You can pick up the words easily enough, join in and help out. The mood starts bright, but after a number of unlucky accidents there is less singing and more grumbling. The cursed energy left behind has made all of you much more prone to workplace accidents but the storefronts need to be scrubbed, broken glass needs sweeping, new furniture needs construction. There are any number of thumbs smashed by hammers, hands cut on saws, heads hit with falling debris or that board of wood you didn’t see someone carrying towards you. It’s a cursed day to be out on the job.
Rewards will come in the form of free drinks for a week from specific bars and a generous amount of chips for the casinos. If you aren’t of age to drink or gamble? Well… they’ll look the other way this time. Have fun.
It should be noted that the uniform -- a happi, a hachimaki, and fundoshi -- is required. The Shuten Clan is very traditional, after all.TAMAMO CLAN
The bathhouses in Tamamo clan territory remain full of bloodied water. They need to be drained and scrubbed to make them new again. However, reaching the drains is a tricky business. You can’t simply reach in to pull out the plug, you will have to wade into the water to twist it free. Easy enough, right?
Unfortunately, residual curse energy has made this a very dangerous task. Phantasmal hands will reach out and try to drag you under as you get too close to the drain. The phantasms can be distracted, so you’ll need some teamwork to succeed. Your reward is a significant amount of free bath coupons. Some of the advertised baths even have “special” properties. Take the chance to relax, you probably need it.
Those that are rejuvenated in the newly purified baths will find themselves with seemingly limitless vigor. That vigor may sometimes manifest in the form of desperately needing to fuck the first thing willing to do so. Which might turn out somewhat embarrassing...SUTOKU CLAN
The residual cursed energy in the Sutoku Alliance territory has congregated in their many arcades. The prizes in the UFO catcher machines seem off and they keep shifting around. If you happen to win a prize, the prize slot snaps shut on your hand with amazing force: the machine out for blood. To clear the curse, the prizes need to be removed from the machines and purified with the help of a local shrine maiden. Unfortunately, the key ring to open the machines has been stolen by some of the unruly prizes. You will need to use your UFO catcher skills to fish it back out.
Try not to lose any fingers.
Other machines are shooting tokens out of their coin slots at astonishingly painful speeds. A strange phenomenon, as even the machines that take swipe cards are doing it. Where are those tokens even coming from? You will have to get the machines open and give them a deep cleaning to get all the residual blood off the coins and mechanisms. You need the same keys that are stuck inside the UFO catcher…. Better hope you can fish out the one you need.
For your troubles, you will be given unlimited free plays for a month. Perfect for winning a totally-not-cursed prize for your sweetie.ENMA DEPARTMENT
It’s the Department of the Enma’s turn to go begging for good will. They are considered to be mostly responsible for the way the cursed haniwa were handled in the first place. Enma souls should get out on the streets and see what the people need: Food, clean water, housing repairs and maintenance, as well as exorcisms. They’re all high on people’s priority lists and most people want it done pronto. Try not to get snappy with the angry people, the department’s reputation is on the line.
The Enma is slated to give a press conference at some point. It's up to the rest of the Department to assure that there will be reception to his words. They are likely to be of grave importance to the rest of the city.
A hard day’s work is its own reward, but you’ll also get a day pass to a theme park on the edge of the city – in the name of community outreach, of course.
2. GHOST SHARKS
The very streets themselves are treacherous with residual curses. The isonades may have been intimidated out of town for the moment but the anger of their ancestors lingers in the bloody puddles that still glisten in the streets. Come too close to these puddles and spectral sharks will lunge from beneath the surface: Blood for blood! Lives for lives!
While spectral in nature, the teeth on these sharks can still do real harm to anyone they lash out at. They don’t seem to take damage in kind, but will pop and disperse for a moment when struck. The ghostly sharks are being populated by a magic totem that has been partially buried in the dirt of a local park. Destroy it and the sharks will disappear.
Unfortunately, a pack of snotty local children have taken a shine to this magic totem. They are not keen to let you take it from them, nor break it. It’s theirs. It’s special. If you’re feeling brutish or cruel, you can fight the children or deceive them, but your boss would probably suggest you try to bargain with them for appearance’s sake. They’re entirely unreasonable though, as children can be, and it will be quite a chore to get them to agree to your terms.
3. CURSED CORNERS
There are certain corners and alleyways which are simply predisposed to gather cursed energy. These areas are still haunted enough to affect the reality around you. You may experience hallucinations or visions of lost loved ones, past regrets, personal failings. These visions are played out in the area for all to see. You will remain frozen in place until your moment is done, or someone brave comes to pull you out.
Now that the worst of it is over, some of the more morbid and voyeuristic members of the public may be lurking around these haunted areas, waiting to see what horrors will be unveiled. They have out their phones and their cameras to record the show.
The cruelest of the spectators provide commentary to their social media followings as they observe. Anything for that monetization!
The biggest of the streams is a kerakera onna who goes by her channel name: Lipsticki. She leans in over the rooftops to cackle loudly at people’s misfortunes and give petty, scathing commentary about their misdeeds and failings.
4. THE ENMA SPEAKS (PLOT RELEVANT)
Outside the hospital where the Enma was being treated, there is a huge press gathering. The judge arbiter has been deemed fit enough to release. Hungry for word, journalists from every publication swarm the area. Most press-outlets in the city are controlled by the Sutoku Alliance, who have a vested interested in interrogating the Enma.
A number of other onlookers have tacked on as well, including Lost Souls both old and new. Lost Souls may even find themselves ordered to attend the statement by their faction.
It is assumed that the Enma must have something of grave importance to say, after all.
The Enma approaches the podium. He is dressed in his usual suit, his crown, and his stern expression; it puts a hush over the crowd through its tremendous pressure alone. No questions have been asked, yet, but a statement has been prepared. He clears his throat:
"The cause of the curse, the enemy of Jigokucho, is... Haniyasu. The Department's focus will be shifting to determining our next action in regards to this entity. That is all."
Just like, the Enma's secretary and a retinue of armored shinigami move to flank the Enma and guide them to a waiting limo down the steps. The press yells their questions over one another, but are pushed back. The Enma doesn't even seem to perceive them, simply focusing on getting into the car.
Unfortunately, if you're a representative for one of the factions -- especially the Department of the Enma -- that makes you fair game to hound for questioning too. Do you stand your ground or try to run away?
[[banner art by s-tokimura]]
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no subject
"I think I saw one a few streets over." Needless to say, he wasn't going to just ditch them until they were actually in competent hands. Or, maybe it did need to be said, but Eiichi sure didn't.
"Insurance?" That has him looking even more puzzled than the beta-blockers. "Why would something like that matter?"
no subject
"Oh my god," they mutter, and they're on the verge of laughing at how absurd it all is. "Hell has universal health care before we do." They make a strangled noise. It's not a sob.
no subject
"What are you getting so worked up about?" There's a breath to his voice, like a sigh of exasperation, because he really can't wrap his head around any of this. Wasn't insurance something for business holdings? He'd heard of guarantees for the hospital in Tokyo, but that was pretty much the extent of it, as far as Ikeda had told him...
"Seriously... you'll just stress your heart more." Seriously he doesn't comfort people can you get over it now "I don't know the policies in Hell, but even the hospital in the capital offered health care to someone off the street." He?? Is?? Confused??
no subject
They laugh, and they look desperately up at him, and they don't actually seem to be crying. And since he seems to have no clue what they're talking about, they do finally deign to explain a little bit about it. "Back home, if you need health care, you're paying for everything. The ambulance ride, the emergency room stay, the room you stay in, medicine, food and water if they can get away with it. And it doesn't matter if you have insurance because they'll just deny everything and make you pay it anyway." It's unsustainable, but it has been for a while.
"That's why I get my meds on—" they pause, wondering if they should admit this, and then remember the entire conversation leading to this point. "On the grey market. The medicine is safe but it's not prescribed. If you're saying I can just walk into a hospital and not walk out in crippling debt... that would be life-changing."
cw: reference to abuse (good morning ct have fun)
But, Eiichi listens. And he can't... imagine it. Paying for an ambulance? It wasn't a patient's job to pay a driver. Having to pay for even basic treatment, for the room, and food? Having some sort of guarantor that the bill would get paid, only for that to fall out on them?
It puts him in a bad mood. Makes him frown, tight and critical. He'll always remember his many trips to the hospital when he was a child, battered and bleeding and sometimes even worse. Dr. Umezawa had always helped him onto the beds when he needed, cleaning up his cuts and bruises and bandaging him up without a second thought. Every time Tamamori had ended up there with a fever he'd let him rest, take a nap, bring him water and anything he needed. He wasn't sure if he'd ever billed Tamamori's grandparents-- though given his grandfather's piss poor attitude, he doubted it, or they would've heard about it when he started yelling down the street--, and he'd never made Eiichi pay a single sen, every time he'd shuffled up to their doors alone. Could he imagine, making a child's family pay something like that? Being saddled with debt just to make sure their fever wasn't something worse? Charging so much for someone's medication that they needed to resort to an unregulated pharmacy?
Maybe he's exaggerating it in his head. But even the few times he'd spent time at the capital's hospital, he'd never seen them turn someone away for money. He knew from listening to Ikeda that life-saving procedures could sadly be out of reach, and he knew the potential for exploitation was there, especially with moneylenders, but... maybe he had just hoped Ikeda and his circle had been the exception. Though he probably should've known better.
"There's always a risk with tampering in a situation like that." It's not a chastisement towards Levi themself; it's... maybe he's just... worried, even with the dark cloud now hanging over his head. But it's not like he'd had to live through that. "I've only been here for awhile, so I don't know how everything works here. A medication like that, even if it's only for emergencies, would probably still require a prescription. But we can get you what you need."
no subject
"There is," they say, recognizing they're not being chastised. Slowly, they start getting back to their feet, propping themself up on the nearest vertical whatever that they can touch. "But when the reward is something that important, you'd be surprised the amount of risks you're willing to take. Especially if you don't know that you'll make it out the other side okay."
They're talking big, they recognize; everything they'd just said goes pretty hard against it. But as long as they think they sound cool, then maybe they'll get away with it. "Now can you take me to the hospital?" they ask, sounding extremely cool.
no subject
But, he's letting them off the hook for it, shockingly (haha), despite how particularly uncool it is to prop yourself up against a wall. He goes as far as to offer the hand still wearing a glove, lest they fall all over themself. "Yeah, yeah. Let's get you there so you can become someone else's problem. And keep you from poisoning yourself on tampered drugs."