(post-mingle) text; un: UEHARA

[metafictions]

Good morning, everyone. I hope you're well.

[read: he hopes that you're not too hungover and that none of you died out there last night.]

Despite the different clans to which we've been assigned, we all find ourselves in strange territory in Jigoku-cho. It may look close to what several of us recognize as Japan, but as you might've already discovered, familiarity does not guarantee similarity. The other day, I met a man who could have easily been from my world, perhaps even my continent or country-- only to discover he hailed from a completely different planet.

So, I'd like to begin gathering information. [He's no Sutoku, but this is important to all of them, and-- as he's been taught-- there are no shortcuts when it comes to investigation.] The more that we know about our fellow lost souls, the more we will have to work from as we learn more about this place and why we're here. We can start with something simple. If you would like, please share where, and when, you are from.

I'll start. I am from Tokyo's 25th Ward, in Japan, on Earth, in the year 2005.

(ooc: feel free to threadjack around! ✌️)

Comments

text | un: tequila sunset

[horrifictie]

im from revachol, insulinde isola, and it's year 51 of the current century.

[ side note: he is very proud of knowing all of this and sharing it accurately! knowledge of basic reality is important to him. ]

so we're in not in japan (which I have never heard of but that's beside the point) but jigoku-cho resembles it? is it only surface level, like how the city looks, or more than that?

un: midnightmocha

[nerine]

From my limited experience and from our Japanese customers at the cafe
No, the youkai with multiple eyes do not in fact walk the streets.
At least in broad daylight anyway 😏

[horrifictie]

wait, does that mean the youkai are not hell exclusive???
that sounds terrifying! how do you cope?

[nerine]

drink lots of coffee and offer them lots of coffee
It doesn't sound like a great idea at first, but some enjoy a nice caffeine rush and lots of sugar like most human folk

[horrifictie]

sounds like a good idea to me.
no one can turn down a good cup of coffee!
the youkai here seem to like alcohol a lot too. no surprise hell has rivers worth of booze to go around.

[nerine]

[you know, Monts has a good feeling about this Tequila Sunset person. They just seem pleasant so far.]

And as we all know, booze is the devil's drink, so it's super appropriate for this place.
Or so my abuela would call it
Though now that I think about it, your username... Kinda impressed that drink shows up where you're from.
I'm assuming anyway?
Never heard of those places you mentioned and I don't think we've had visitors from Revachol as you call it.

[horrifictie]

back home it's called a tequila sunrise. the sunset is my own flair! a signifier that the good times are at an end.
and im not surprised. people don't leave revachol, not unless they can. and they only can if they have money, which most people in revachol do not.
do you normally get out of town visitors though?

[nerine]

Sounds like a restrictive set of circumstances
But money problems are always a constant
Well, "out of town" visitors are our main customer base.
My boss really wanted to have a cafe that catered to everyone and anyone so yeah.

[horrifictie]

Money is the root of and the solution to all problems so it seems.
Shame you work in what sounds like a tourist trap!

[nerine]

[Somewhere, Iona is huffing and puffing and currently Monts is lauuuuuuughing inside.]

Well, I guess it's kind of a trap
But our food and drink is legit, my boss would throw hands with you over that description lol

[horrifictie]

Your boss is scum.
Nothing personal, I don't know them, but all bosses are by definition wage hoarders that are overpaid next to the real laborers.
Your opinion on the business is much more meaningful.

[nerine]

Mmmmmm
She's fine, really?
A witch, but like in a literal 'has magic' sense, not in the negative connotation way
I get paid pretty well compared to normal baristas, I can take a day off anytime I want as long as I let her and the co-owner know ahead of time
And you know, it's pretty cool to see people from other worlds come through the door
Basically, I'm just saying, she's a boss, but probably not in the scum category

More in the, "needs to be better at math" and "zany" categories.

[She does owe Iona like big time, so a part of Monts, as much as she gently roasts her boss, is very grateful to her for exposing her to a larger multiverse where Monts was clearly not the only oddity in the world.]

If anything, my standards for bosses are gonna be way too high after working for her.

1/2

[horrifictie]

[ Wow, all of that sounds really reasonable -- oh no it's working on him too! ]

Don't fall into their trap, they just *want* you to feel satisfied with less!

[horrifictie]

[ Then, he rereads her message again and adds on: ]

Wait, magic? Witch? What?

[ Just like that, his attention has completely shifted. ]

[metafictions]

[Oh! Revachol!! He knows that one now!!]

Small world. The person I met was actually one of your countrymen.

And that is correct. The city looks familiar, the signs seem to be in Japanese, and some of the neighborhoods seem to be structured similarly to other places in Tokyo, but it definitely isn't exact. If there's any other deeper similarities I haven't discovered them yet.

[horrifictie]

you're talking about kim! yeah he's my partner, best guy i know.

[ he doesn't know many guys but even if he did, kim would be best. ]

it's interesting that hell resembles such a specific city. interesting in the way that i don't know what to draw from it, but that doesn't make it less noteworthy! even if the structure isn't exact, it's not what i thought death would look like. though from what i understand we might not *actually* be dead, which is an entire can of worms on its own.

[metafictions]

We were eating at the same ramen stall the other day. We had a nice conversation.

[Kamui's carefully avoiding the fact that the ramen shop was in Tamamo territory, and they had to ignore a couple getting frisky that entire time... not in front of his precious miso broth...]

I agree completely. Then again, maybe there are other hells that look like other places, and we were simply sent to this one? Could there be one that looks like Revachol?

As for dying, I very much doubt that we're dead, mostly because... I'm sure I would know if I had actually died. [He's certainly got the experience down, at any rate.] But I could be wrong.

[horrifictie]

i would hope not. revachol is already hell on earth.

[ or maybe, it's just life. he isn't too sure when he's only been alive for a week in the shell of a man forty-four years old. ]

i was sure i was dead. i was shot before i woke up here! but then could it be we are in hell without being dead? maybe we were taken too soon by mistake. or maybe it's just a lie, or a euphemism?

[metafictions]

Is Revachol so bad?

[Okay, now we're getting somewhere--] Blekksprut a few comments above you is in a similar boat. They were in a fight that may or may not have killed them. Perhaps that has something to do with it. Or, like you said, we're being lied to about where we are.

[horrifictie]

ok it's not that bad. but it has been forced into stagnation by outside forces. more like limbo than hell.

do you remember what happened to you before your arrival then? if we're looking for connections and patterns anyway.

[metafictions]

[That sounds a lot like the Wards back home, honestly. Speaking of...]

I went bowling with a friend.

[Okay, that's not a lie, but--] Like a few others have mentioned, however, I was in a life-or-death situation shortly before the bowling alley.

[horrifictie]

so then you didn't get to go bowling before you came here?
that's a shame.
we should go out bowling together sometime!

[metafictions]

[Why is everybody inviting him out... he was supposed to be gathering information...]

We did, but it was just one set. We were killing time for something more important.

If I can find a bowling alley here... okay. It might be fun.

[horrifictie]

aren't we all just killing time until the end?
which, well, has come for us! sort of.
this was not the apocalypse i was promised to be honest but that's fine.
what is bowling actually?

[metafictions]

[.........]

You asked me to go bowling, and you've never been bowling before?

Put simply, you roll a ball down a lane to knock over a set of ten pins. I suppose I'll have to take you after all, to show you how it works.