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jigokufever2022-08-25 05:44 pm
jigokumods) wrote in jigokufever2022-08-25 05:44 pm
Entry tags:
AUGUST 2022 TEST DRIVE
MAIN NAVIGATION
1. SHUTEN TERRITORY - Muscling In
art by tohdraws
In the aftermath of the curse crisis, the Shuten Clan forgave a bunch of protection payments in the region, and helped cover the costs for rebuilding. Unfortunately, some of the street gangs in the area are much less civically minded. They have used the Shuten's relaxed policies as an opportunity to turn their own screws on the local business owners. These unaffiliated youth gangs have been much rougher with the locals, and have been asking for even larger collection fees. This has pissed off the folks who are just trying to get their lives and businesses back on track!
Unfortunately, the opening of Sai no Kawara in the underground drew so much of the clan's focus and manpower, that the issues up top just slipped through the cracks. Until now! Toraguma is in a bad mood and is looking for people to take it out on: the youth gangs will do just fine.
Volunteers are being solicited to join the regular Shuten enforcers in driving these interlopers out of Shuten territory. The gangs are wise to the usual Shuten tactics, though, and they're prepared for a fight. They are also appealing to the influx of Lost Souls: they act as though they're the victims of the factions' power struggles! They propose that taking up arms against the Shuten Clan will win them favor with the other groups in the city. (It will look less good with the Shuten Clan, should you be assigned to them.)
Fight with the Shutens, or with the gangs. Either way, a fight is coming.
2. TAMAMO TERRITORY - Throat Goat (NSFW)
at by akai riotThis prompt is overtly sexual in nature. Please use the proper NSFW labelling in your top levels and threads.
While the Palace of Sai in the underground is doing well, that doesn't mean the other businesses in the Tamamo Clan's collection have been slacking. One of the least "classy" soaplands has decided they're going to hold a contest to drive up business for themselves! They are partnering with some of the other sex clubs in the area for the sleaziest of events.
The Hyottoko Cup is looking for volunteer participants! The competition is pretty straightforward: a ruler is drawn on the throat of each participant and an array of members is presented to swallow. Whichever contestant can take the guests deepest and longest will take home the "coveted" Hyottoko Cup! Ok, there's a little judge favoritism involved too, so put on a show.
The guests have likewise been pulled in as volunteers, with instructions that they don't have to make this easy on the participants. Guests are provided with special seals that they can use for the length of the competition to enhance their natural assets. For those lacking the equipment entirely, there's a seal for that too.
Have fun and play nice.
3. TAMAMO TERRITORY - Strike a Poise (GEN)
Other businesses looking to jump start this month's earnings are also getting in on the spirit of competition! Businesses less oriented towards sexual service have come together as a means to draw in the high dollar clients, and one local club has proposed something old school.
Sign up for the Poise Contest, where contestants are placed into more and more ridiculous geta while tasked with serving drinks to the guest. Spills are expected, and the guests are cheerfully kitted out with cheap club-branded ponchos to protect their clothes. (Marketing, am I right?) While spills are expected, the contestant will lose points for each of the spilled drinks. Try to keep your balance as you attend to increasingly absurd drink orders. The intensity of the traditional footwear will only make your job that much harder.
Do you have what it takes to pour a champagne fountain while wearing teetering tengu geta? Prove your balance and dexterity is the best and the take home prize is some sweet cash. For Lost Souls freshly in the city, the chance to win some extra money can't really be passed up, huh…
4. SUTOKU TERRITORY - Jigokucho's Got Talent
Ever since Moonday's beloved singer – Ringo-chan – was kidnapped at the Tanabata festival, the band has had to cancel all of their scheduled gigs. Unfortunately, they were a hugely popular act, booked solid in most of the Sutoku Alliance's various nightclubs. This has left a ton of empty spots that need to be filled quickly, before the crowds get upset and demand… refunds.
That's where you come in, Lost Souls! Desperate promoters and talent bookers are literally grabbing Lost Souls off the street and begging, pleading, with them to perform a set for the night. They just need to have something to fill the space Moonday would have otherwise occupied. At least give the crowd something to see!
Acts do not need to be of the musical variety. Any performing talent is accepted, no matter how esoteric or bizarre! If it can fill out a 15-30 minute set, the club owners will be happy and the customers will at least see something interesting; even if it's a bad kind of interesting. So get on stage and show this city what you've got!
( Help us fill our time slots, please! We're desperate! 😩)
5. DEPARTMENT OF THE ENMA - Sticky Paws II: Outta the Bag
The Enma Department is busy: they have a kidnapping to investigate, a primordial god to pin down, and the crisis of their ever-shifting public image to manage. However, crime never sleeps and is always there to add to the troubled Department's workload. Worse still, we thought this little crime spree was over six months ago! But here it is again, much to the Enma's chagrin.
Cat cafés are a popular tourist attraction all across Jigokucho. About six months ago, a gang of bakeneko infiltrated several of the cafés to rob customers occupied with kitty bliss. Wallets, jewelry, and anything else those sticky paws could snatch away were being picked in droves. The cat capers are afoot once more!
Are you a hapless victim of these furry thieves, or are you helping the Department of the Enma track down these cat burglars? Unfortunately, the bakeneko are exceptionally clever and are using a seal to disguise their secondary tails. This makes them look just about like any normal cat. Better make sure your lead is good, or you'll be chasing down an ordinary Felis Catus. Soft to pet, but not going to return your pilfered cash.
Of course, the café staff might be in on this caper too… It's never easy to tell who's getting a cut of the profits. Be careful who you trust out there.
6. ALL OVER - The 100 Billion Yen Man (PLOT RELEVANT)
The local TV news has been announcing that Kaberou Kannazaki – the legendary finance wolf and the father of kidnapping victim, Ringo-chan – will be making an announcement this week. People have flocked to television sets throughout the city; at the squares, around TVs in bars, electronic stores, each other's phones, and any other venue with a connection. The kidnapping has been a highly public ordeal and the talk of the town. Many of the locals were present at the festival and witnessed the crime. They want to hear what the word is!
The public doesn't have to wait long. Wolf-eared Kaberou sits at a press desk, surrounded by microphones, and dazzled with flashbulbs. He clears his throat and, as he begins to speak, he is direct and to the point; not unlike a wolf lunging for the throat."As of today, I am issuing a bounty on the man known as the Iron Bear, who has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of my daughter, Ringo Kannazaki. The payout to the party responsible for bringing me Iron Bear, dead or alive, is 100 Billion Yen. Individuals or groups, I don't care. Just bring my daughter back to me, and the money is yours."
Well! The Department of the Enma's hopes of an orderly investigation have been dashed, but this is certainly an opportunity for anyone brave enough – or, more accurately, stupid enough – to traverse the Wasteland. Maybe one of you out there will find the legendary Iron Bear and bring him to some form of justice.
Local businesses are quick to leap at this opportunity, too. They begin to aggressively push sponsorships at would-be bounty hunters. Weapons? Armor? Survival gear? All at discount prices! Each faction has their interest in collecting the massive bounty as well. They will all be putting a lot of pressure on recruits to get ready to head out to the Wastes.
If you just got here? Well, it would definitely be in your interest to start finding gear, and finding people willing to collect that bounty with you. It could mean a big step forward toward your eventual contract, after all.
Welcome to the test drive meme!
- First of all, big thanks to our discord chat for the "Throat Goat" prompt idea. Stay golden, gang.
- IF YOU'RE TOP-LEVELING A NEW CHARACTER, post it here!
- Characters already in the game can top level as well.
- Threads here can be considered game canon.
- Characters can be recruited to do work for any faction until they're given their official assignment.
- If you have any questions about the TDM content, please ask them here! You can find information on the story so far here!
- If you have questions about the game itself, please check out the premise, FAQ, and rules pages.
- Reserves are open until September 5th.
sorry you married the stupidest man alive
He can't really pronounce anyone's name—something of a stumbling block, until he hits his stride and leans into it. He gives energetic, elaborate introductions, piling hyperbole on hyperbole until the performer in question sidles up to tap him on the shoulder and calmly say their own name.
(“Deadpan,” he exhorts them backstage. “Deadpan!”)
The acts—well, some of them are surprisingly good and nobody leaves in tears. There's a stand-up set that lights the room on fire (figuratively speaking) but leaves him baffled. A twenty-minute guitar solo. Unfortunately the evening's final performer is a girl with a voice like a songbird and a paralyzing case of stage fright, and the show draws to a close with Jimmy trying and—no, just trying to lead the recalcitrant audience in a sing-along.
He still has his mic in hand when he bellies up to the bar. “What, I don't get to keep this?” he says, surrendering it with a croaky laugh—his throat's starting to hurt again. He's provided a beer—partial payment—and presses the bottle to his forehead, rolls it back and forth and briefly lets his eyes fall shut, relief running through him like a shudder.
talk about her dreamboat like that again and she'll plan your public execution
When the third MC is up, she hears him before she gets a chance to turn around and look, and she very nearly cuts off her possible colleagues mid-sentence. The Kim who is conversational and game gives way to this other person, one who looks over her shoulder every time an act ends, one who gazes at this hapless, blundering American on stage and sits up straighter, one who seems to have forgotten how to blink. She has to excuse herself with the most dispassionate thing she can muster: "I'm just a huge fan of Kevin Costner."
It's been a lot, pretending to be "okay" these past few days. She can't ask herself to do even a passable job of pretending to be a consummate professional. Not under these circumstances.
When the train wreck is over, she's smiling to herself, even though reality has long set in. She abandons her drink and her fellows at their end of the bar with ease, but she still takes her time making her way over, easing herself around clusters of people. Three feet away, his back still to her, she considers that she isn't ready to have a conversation with him. When she reaches out to place a hand on the back of his shoulder, it's with the understanding that she may never be.
"I can't believe no one knew the words," she says, but maybe that's too quiet, lost on the crowd. What definitely isn't, delivered with a swelling chest: "Hi."
🤐
Tender.
A disbelieving laugh falls out of his mouth—uncouth, like it's a piece of chicken or something. He smiles and leans back, just looking at her for a long, long moment. Understanding that as soon as he blinks she'll be gone and he'll move on to the writhing-on-the-floor stage of this stroke or whatever's actually going on here.
It's too late, though: he's already hitched his every hope to her. He reaches to take her hand—it can't stay where it is but he really doesn't want it going anywhere—and give it a squeeze, run his thumb over her fingers. Nice and corporeal. “Of all the gin joints,” he says, still sounding stunned. He exhales sharply, not quite a laugh this time. “Where'd you come from?”
😘
"I was just having some drinks after work, I–" She squints a little; when he isn't blown out under stage lights, she sees the traces of a bad sunburn, but she isn't sure if it's just the shadows of a much moodier bar. She pushes on. "I've only been here a few days."
If it's an excuse for coming here without him, it's unrepentant, but the look in her eyes is concerned.
no subject
He weighs what's in her expression, the lines around her mouth. “You want a drink and a dark corner? My treat.”
no subject
"You don't want to get out of here?" she replies. "You look a little..."
She reaches up to gently thumb at his cheek.
no subject
“Ow.” He winces, mouth locked in a grimace, but doesn't flinch away. “Easy. The aloe budget took a major hit.”
no subject
"Jimmy," she says. It's tender, and she lets his face go, but only barely. "I've got some cash, they've got to have something similar at the convenience store." Do they get a lot of sun in Hell? "Let's get you patched up first."
no subject
But there's a reason he didn't agree to this while looking her in the eye. “Okay.” It's lighter. He feels the weight he'd been buckling under slide off. He throws a half-rueful, half-affectionate parting glance at the stage—the site of his demise—and leaves the beer sweating on the counter.
no subject
"Okay."
Kim follows his gaze to the stage briefly, but her attention is swiftly on spiriting him out of here. She laces her fingers with his gingerly, one of many things she feels selfish about –– but she needs this, at least for a moment. There are a great many things that are far from okay, but she can hang on.
The air outside is hot and humid, thick enough to feel worse than the press of the bodies in the club. The noise is barely better, foot traffic both human and non-human streaming past them, cigarette smoke clouding every doorway, neon signs primed to sear eyes. Kim glances up at Jimmy, sure she's never going to lose him in a crowd again, and then turns her eyes ahead. Around any corner, there will be the bright white lights of a konbini.
She squeezes his hand gently.
"I don't think the movies prepared us for this," she remarks.
SPOILERS FOR HOUSE OF BAMBOO (1955)
“What? Kim.” He stops where he is, much to the annoyance of six to ten people in their vicinity. Swings their hands a little, playfully. “You go to the nearest pachinko joint.” He counts each successive step off on his fingers, beginning with his thumb. “You ask for the ichiban. You shake him down for twenty-five bucks in protection money, then Cameron Mitchell shows up and punches you through a wall.”
He smiles to himself, cheered by the thought, the familiarity of this despite everything: talking movies together. Good old Cameron Mitchell.
now starting a "Kim and Jimmy's Jigoku adventure" letterboxd list
"And then you join a gang," she adds. It almost makes the situation feel funny. "Or at least pretend to."
I may or may not be saving scorsese reaction pics for him to use on the network
“Nobody knows who we are.” He says it as it occurs to him, the idea still taking shape. It's a heady thought—no names or reputations proceeding them, dogging them. “Oh hey.”
He jerks his head: on the other side of the street, a shop with cheerful horizontal stripes running along the top.
i'd expect no less tbh
The convenience store feels inordinately quiet after the nightclub and the street. There's a few others swallowed up by the space; another shopper's long horns peeking out over the top of the next aisle, the cashiers barely looking up from their busywork to greet them with a rote "Irasshaimase!" Kim ignores them, venturing into the aisles in search of something resembling personal care products. She finds face wash packaged in single-use plastic pods and glass tubes of concealer sealed into plastic sleeves. Aloe vera, aloe vera...
But her attention doesn't leave him, even if she's busy looking.
"We could be anyone," she says, giving his hand a gentle squeeze.