(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

[aceslow]

Oh, you've met Harry. I just made a strong first impression with him.

[ And he's already brought Kim up. He really shouldn't have. All Kim has done is show him the sort of kindness that the people he'd spent the last week terrorizing were neither capable of nor obligated to give him. Kim also shouldn't find it flattering. (Harry gets +1 Good Boy Point anyway.) ]

Yes, we're from the same Revachol, and we haven't run into anyone else from our city yet, though it's possible they're here. [ They don't know everyone from their city, after all. ] We're Lieutenants with the RCM. The Revachol Citizens Militia. He's a Lieutenant-double-yefreitor, actually.

[ Kim still feels the distinction is necessary to make, though more out of an acknowledgment of Harry's abilities while he's no doubt making a fool of himself than because he wants to let everyone know that he outranks him. ]

[metafictions]

[Newly assigned partners, then.] So that's tequila sunset's name.

[The distinction... makes no sense out of context, but it certainly sounds pretty good!!]

Interesting variety of ranks they've assembled. There's a Chief Justice here, though he's from a different country and year than me, and although you'd probably outrank me, I work within a more specialized organization myself. I'm a detective of the 25th Ward's Heinous Crimes Unit.

[aceslow]

[ God, is he still going by that? ]

Within the structure of law enforcement, I've yet to meet anyone with a rank lower than Detective. Where I'm from, that generally takes a great deal of time to achieve.

[ Especially if you're gay, if you're Seolite, if you're a pain in the ass for all the wrong reasons. Maybe he's a little bitter. ]

I have yet to brush up on what the legal system here actually looks like. It doesn't seem very robust.

sorry for this one in particular kim

[metafictions]

Really? Following basic police academy training there’s only a short program of a year or so that would qualify one for investigative work.

The HCU is a separate unit from the main police, though, so take it with a grain of salt, but I was considered somewhat late to be assigned at [how old is he, again? hope he remembers this one right,] 25. My youngest colleague is a few years into his career, and only a bit older than me.

Perhaps they start us younger in Japan.

[Much younger, apparently.]

Were you assigned to the Enma? I wasn’t, despite being law enforcement in my previous life. [Used both literally and figuratively, here.] They likely have the best level of insight there, but I think you're right. Apparently you don't need much to qualify for assignment to their department: all sorts are Enma, former officers, paper pushers, and criminals alike.

[aceslow]

Just a year? That seems brief, especially without any extant fieldwork experience. It's such a delicate field. And if 25 is considered late, then people are being asked to deal with corpses at quite a young age, aren't they?

[ Not that corruption isn't a problem in the RCM, but having such ease of entry would make it even easier for crime bosses to infiltrate and sweep away their murders, wouldn't it...? ]

Just a cultural difference, I suppose. I don't mean to judge. [ He's judging. ]

I was assigned to Sutoku. That's three of us in law enforcement that weren't assigned to Enma. It doesn't seem that our resumes mean much to them.

[metafictions]

[Kim can't see it, of course, but his expression's grim as he types his response.]

Very young, yes. Until relatively recently, violent crime had been a large issue in the 24th Ward. The stricter governance of the 25th Ward, where I worked, were created in part to find ways to alleviate that issue.

[Exactly, Kim!!! IT'S NOT GREAT, PLEASE JUDGE.]

I really, really want to know why I was assigned to Shuten. It seems... [tragically mismatched?!] Like an interesting decision. And I guess a resume doesn't matter when you'll be assigned to committing crimes, in the end?

[aceslow]

Someone I spoke to observed that Shuten members tend to be quite large.

[aceslow]

[aceslow]

That theory doesn't seem to hold up in this case.

[ Kim, don't be rude. ]

Maybe it's because you're good in a fight? Or because you were used to being around violence from a young age?

[metafictions]

[the oni spent half of last night's party teasing kamui for it, DON'T REMIND HIM.]

Both sound plausible enough.

[Kamui's not familiar with the kinds of flashy darkweb pay-per-view fighting that assassins like Travis had been roped into, but... he can fight. Maybe they're expecting him to hop into the arena too?]

A detective in Sutoku sounds like a bit more of a natural progression. There are some transferable skills there, at least.

[aceslow]

You mean generating and filling out a completely arbitrary amount of paperwork and administrative work? I like to think that's not what people consider to be my predominant skill, but they wouldn't be wrong.

[ He knows that's not all there is to it. He'll be careful with what he says on a public forum, however. ]

I'm fine with where I was assigned, however. Policing a city I know nothing about doesn't seem right.

[metafictions]

[Ah yes, bureaucracy...]

It's a lot less attractive than the field work part of the job, isn't it?

[At least he actually does it. Some of his coworkers (cough Kuroyanagi) are always skipping out and shoving it onto the lower-ranking agents in favor of, well, only doing the fun stuff.]

You have a point. I don't envy our Enma colleagues. That's a bit much for learning on the job, in my opinion.

[aceslow]

I'd argue that it's of equal importance, unfortunately. But nobody joins the force for the paperwork. If that's all you wanted to do, you could find a job that actually pays.

[ That's operating under the assumption that they're underpaid everywhere. He's pretty sure he's right. ]

Policing ideally means you have a responsibility to the people. Hard to accomplish, when you don't even know who the people are.

[metafictions]

[He's right as far as Kamui is concerned...] My boss did do a lot of moonlighting. She claimed it was for fun, but that can't be the whole truth.

Exactly. We don't know how anything works here, from the laws themselves to the culture. I'm still getting used to the youkai, to be honest. I only know them from legends and stories back home, and some of them make our mutual shopkeeper acquaintance look tame in comparison.

[aceslow]

Precisely. Perhaps more than our knowledge of the laws, what gives us the right to be the ones to uphold them when we've only just arrived? Gaining the public's trust is difficult enough when you've grown up among them. To gain their trust when we're trespassers on their homes isn't a task that I envy.

Though before coming here, I hadn't even heard of them in stories. I've learned a great deal from those of you who have, however.

[metafictions]

You know, I don’t sense a lot of trust for the Enma around here. I suppose it figures. [ba dum tssh.]

Hmm… Then our legends haven’t translated to your world like our languages have. Are there any kind of spirit or monster stories you know of from Revachol? Just because this looks like Japan, doesn’t mean everything here will necessarily be Japanese.

[aceslow]

I'll admit that I never paid very close attention to those sorts of things. There are some stories of cryptids, I suppose. [ Maybe he should have paid closer attention to those... ] But none like the ayakishi I've seen here. They're all much more animal in nature. Beasts, not spirits.

I wouldn't expect to see them here. Frankly, I wouldn't like to. It would be an inconvenience.

[metafictions]

You know, usually I'd call them youkai. Ayakishi is sort of an older term. The last person I met who used that term claimed to be an exorcist. Did you hear it from someone like him?

[when they find out they each met one half of a pair of messy exes....]

Well, I certainly hope we don't run into Bigfoot here on top of all the youkai ayakishi. But we'll have to wait and see. About everything, really.

[aceslow]

Is that so? We must have spoken to the same person. I've never heard of these things one way or the other, and he seemed to be an expert on the matter, so I took it at face value. I wonder what the ayakishi, or yokai, themselves prefer.

[ It seems safest to go with that. But that would require having a conversation with them. No thank you. ]

At this point, I would prefer Bigfoot. That's just an enormous ape. Downright ordinary compared to some of the things I've seen. I could do without some of the others, however, so best that this place steers clear of them entirely.

[metafictions]

[This entire time, it had never occurred to him to ask what the youkai themselves preferred. That’s a nice thought.] I guess I’ll just have to ask someone one of these days.

Giant animals are still pretty shocking— I definitely wasn’t expecting a giant spider woman to serve me my ramen, for one— but you have a point. What’s the oddest thing you’ve run into so far?

[aceslow]

The umbrellas.

[ Seriously, what the fuck. ]

I met one for the first time while helping prep for the parade. I was setting up some of the outdoor seating, and when I picked up one of the umbrellas to prop it up on the table, he suddenly screamed at me.

I did not enjoy that.

[ Kim had shrieked bloody murder and had physically run around the corner to hide, but Kamui doesn't need to know that. ]

[metafictions]

[KAMUI IS TYPING

...

KAMUI IS TYPING.]

Those
Those exist???

[Can he say he wouldn't have screamed bloody murder and run away? Unsure.]

Did it try to attack you?

[aceslow]

Those exist.

No no, he did nothing of the sort. In fairness to him, I would have yelled at someone trying to use me as patio furniture as well. It was a reasonable reaction. But I advise you to look very carefully the next time you assume something is an inanimate object.