thenearshore | 20 | Shopping Frenzy!

Entry tags:

20 | Shopping Frenzy!

Who: Everyone!
What: Helping a grand opening go well
When: August 21
Where: The Near Shore
Summary: The owners and employees at a new shopping center are begging for help. Bad luck has plagued them, and their grand opening is this weekend! Gods and shinki alike have been asked to respond to their prayers on Opening Day, find the source of their misfortune and ensure that the opening goes smoothly.

The Yamada Corporation is opening a new, high-class department store in a Tokyo suburb. They've been running advertisements for weeks and excitement among their prospective customers is at a fever pitch. Unfortunately, things inside the project aren't going so well. Construction has been delayed, deliveries are wrong, employees keep getting sick or hurt on the job and it's starting to look like the grand opening will be a grand disaster. Their fervent prayers for help have reached the Heavens, who are passing them along to you to be granted... but with an addition: Heaven, too, is very interested in learning where that bad luck is coming from.

Maintenance Madness

For a brand-new building, Yamada Department Store is having a lot of maintenance issues. Toilets are overflowing, lights are burning out, stair railings are coming loose, and either the air conditioning is set so cold there's frost on the vents or it's not working at all. The overworked maintenance crew needs all the help they can get! How many gods does it take to change a light bulb?

Secret Shoppers

are

Retail Rescue

Intrepid Investigators

comment to the "Investigations" thread below with a link to your thread.

by replying to your hint under the "Investigations" thread

In Summary:

Keep the lights on
Take some time out to enjoy a shopping trip
Make sure the customers are happy
Discover the cause of the bad luck
Have fun~

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Izumo stops when Totsuka stops, looking over at him briefly before he looks over at the restaurant.]

Might as well. It wouldn't hurt to try it out.

[And he's not exactly a picky enough eater to say no.]

[ Tatara angles up to glance back at Izumo. ]

Would you say it's fancy enough for the occasion?

[A chuckle.]

Fancy enough, but not too fancy for us either. I say it's a good choice.

If it's good enough for you, it's good enough for me!

[ Let's not kid about who has more discerning tastes, here. ]

But first--!

[ Peripherally, he gives Izumo a Look. ]

Aren't you going to offer me your arm, Kusanagi-san~?

[ It's a joke. He swears it's a joke! ]

[There's a pause.

Then a look, and Totsuka's getting a bonk on the head.]

Let's not push it, Totsuka.

[ Only Tatara Totsuka, incarnation of Minerva and former so-called weakest member of HOMRA, would be rejected on his very own not!date.

A wince and recoil precede a sheepish chuckle. ]

Sorry, sorry...! [ Even in the afterlife, he's still just as little fun as he was before. Ah, well. At least he's consistent!

Silence reigns until the hostess seats them at a table along a glass panel wall, wherein Tatara is immediately preoccupied with the view more so than the menu. ]

[Look, he's going along with this not!date already.

Doesn't mean he's going to treat the other man any differently, however.

As the hostess walks away after telling them that their server will be by shortly, Izumo gazes at the menu.]

Enjoying the view outside?

[ He didn't have to if he didn't want to. But as Tatara recalls it, it was Izumo who had made certain points of it and about it -- enough that the god had flushed and flustered about it, albeit mostly from disbelief. ]

Mm! It's beautiful from here...

[ It almost reminds him of home. ]

[It's enough to have gotten Totsuka to fluster from the tease.]

Should take a picture of it for the memories.

[ Spoil-sport. ]

Aah! You're right!

[ How is it that he's become so used to not having a camera that he has to remember he has one now? ]

It's in one of these bags...

[ He has to go rooting through them for a moment, sifting through all the kitschy nonsense nobody effectively told him he couldn't have before he finds what he's looking for. ]

[He could actually hit on Totsuka, but that might be awkward for them both.

...Maybe.

Lowering the menu, he watches, bemused as Totsuka sifts through his bag.]

...I told you not to buy so many of those stuff.

[ It would be, ~~but that's only more reason to do it~~. And he's had enough awkward to last him a while, between the conversation he had with Sakon a few days ago, the strange meeting with Shun, and being piggybacked by a stranger. Three strikes, he's out. ]

It's fine, it's fine! I still need to decorate around the temple, you know!

[ Sure. And the mood rings had what to do with that, exactly?

Point is, for as wise as he can be on occasion, Tatara still requires adult supervision from time to time -- especially around collectibles and knickknacks. ]

Ah, here it is!

[ Some eternities later. ]

[He’s tempted to face palm because the god really doesn’t change, does he?

He raises an eyebrow at him.]

It’s one thing to decorate your temple, but some of the things you bought doesn’t really seem to have much purpose - even for decorating purposes.

[Like the mood rings. You don’t need those.

He shakes his head, turning to look over when their server finally comes to take their order.]

[ He's talking about the mood rings. Tatara knows he's talking about the mood rings, and frankly, in that one instance, he's willing to defend his purchase!!

...Kind of. He pulls one out, slipping it on his right ring finger, watching in muted amusement as it changes colors immediately. ]

Kusanagi-san really is no fun sometimes. [ That's... not really a defense. ] Besides, I think Sakon and Shouhei will like them!

[ Or, one of them will. The other will probably smile and graciously accept, then leave it somewhere and say they "lost" it.

Distracted as he is, the god doesn't realize he's been squandering his time until the server comes over to take an order and Tatara hasn't even cracked open the menu yet. ]

Aah, sorry, sorry -- I'll be just a moment! Kusanagi-san, you order first, okay?

If you're trying to defend your purchase to me, it's not working so far. [Even if he does sound somewhat amused by them.

But hearing that the mood rings are actually for his shinki, it has him raise an eyebrow at him.]

...You really think so? [He's met Shouhei, not Sakkon so much, but he won't argue too much if that's the case.

But gesturing for Totsuka to take a look at the menu, Izumo rattles off his order to the server.]

[ There's only awkward, sheepish laughter at that deadpan statement. Of course it's not working, he wouldn't expect it to. They've never really seen eye-to-eye in that way; rather, theirs is a relationship more rooted in mutual respect and... occasional befuddlement with each other. ]

I do! [ A beat. ] ...Well, Sakon will wear it, I bet.

[ Because Sakon is so enthusiastic just to have his god's attention. It's sweet, really; perhaps especially so given how they've come to bond. Tatara still thinks of it as the nicest thing Johan ever did for him.

By the time Izumo's finished with his order, Tatara's still without a definitive answer. ]

Hmm... [ And then, he closes the menu. ] Surprise me!

[ Everyone in the restaurant is about to think he's nuts, but there's a method to his madness... ish. ]

I wouldn't know to agree with that.

[After all, he's never met Sakon, but he knows that Totsuka is the type of person to adore his shinki in general, anyway.

The server looks at Totsuka skeptically for a moment before eventually nodding, telling them that he'll return with some water shortly before he walks away.

It leaves Izumo to look over at the god with a raised eyebrow. Your method to madness is something he'll never understand.]

[ He absolutely is the type to adore his shinki. And now that he's used one of them in vessel form, it's understandable that he's become rather attached to him. ]

Aah, that's right -- I don't know that you or King would have met Sakon.

[ He looks wistful for a moment as he gazes out the window. ]

I found him at the place where Johan's temple used to be. [ Homeless. Stranded. He looked so lost, so disappointed...

But instead of those words, there's only a soft smile, a small chuckle. ]

I guess you could say I inherited him!

[Definitely hasn't, but he remembers how Totsuka came upon Sakon in the first place.

He was initially waiting for the usual sadness that comes with the mention of Johan's name as it always does, so he's a bit more pleasantly surprised to see that this isn't the case here.

There isn't sadness, per se, but a fondness of some sort that comes with it now.]

Hm, Johan was probably hoping you'd be the one to take care of Sakon in his place.

[ It's been a while. A long while. Tatara still has the days numbered in his mind, like it or not. And, for a time, it was hard for the god to bond with this new shinki of his, always discreetly a little saddened, attaching him to the one he used to belong to.

He'll always be missed, to some degree or another. And who wouldn't miss the things they used to do? The little tangle of fingers, shoulders brushing against one another, foreheads resting together... moreover, all of it feeling so natural.

When it comes down to it, Tatara really had loved and lost.

After a sort of impromptu heart-to-heart about it, Sakon knows now exactly how hard that was on the god, and Tatara's perhaps unexpected candor on the topic helped immensely. He's learned to see Sakon in his own right, as his own person -- no longer an extension of Johan; "all that remains" of him. ]

I bet he was! Johan was thoughtful that way. [ He props his chin up on his hands. ] And really, he left me with the best gift I could have asked for. [Someone strong and proud, loyal, and earnestly interested in the well-being of his god. He's a good man. A little peculiar sometimes, more than a little funny, but a good man. ]

I'll have to introduce you two, someday.

[It really does seem that way, doesn't it?

Izumo honestly would tell that if Totsuka has a picture of Johan, he'd be willing to hang a picture of him on the wall that the shinki has been reserving for his personal project.

At the same time, he's not sure how personal it could be, too.

He hums.]

It'd be good to meet him at long last.

[ Regrettably, Tatara has not one single photo of the lost god. Not. One. He’d thought about taking some, of course -- maybe screencapping a moment in a video call where he smiled so brightly the elder god could feel his heart simply soar; or, perhaps doing something corny, like a cliched selfie of him kissing Johan’s cheek while the younger no doubt blushed furiously. Just little things; the things those young and falling in love for the first time do, whether silly or not. But there was no need to rush those; they could take it all slow. So there’d always been more time for that.

Until, of course, one day there wasn’t.

Given his life thus far -- abandonment after abandonment, and only when he’d finally found happiness was he shot and killed -- he should have known his luck here would fail him, too. That the truly pure and good things in his life would be ripped from him sooner rather than later; or him from them. But, Tatara being Tatara, optimism had dispelled those thoughts.

Thus, after soaring at such great heights on the euphoria of a budding love, the loss was a long, hard fall. But, it’s given the surviving god a whole new outlook on life, really; and a new lease on it now, with Sakon at his side, so eager to help. Tatara’s glad, (and a little surprised), the shinki seems to have avoided any trauma. ]

Aah, I think you’ll like him. I think King would, too, if he met him.

[ Though, that brings up an important topic -- important enough to shift Tatara’s expression to something serious. ] ...How is King, anyway? Is he alright...?

[ It’s still so weird to be asking Izumo these things. He’s used to being closer to Mikoto than this. ]

[It's only right for Totsuka to keep moving on, to keep pressing forward. He's never really been one to let grief take hold of him, and it's pleasant to see him finally being able to talk about Johan without the air of depression surrounding him. It's refreshing since Izumo's memories of Totsuka is brought with the clarity of how quick the god can let go of things, always moving from one thing to another.

However, at the mention of Mikoto, Izumo pauses a bit.

He then sighs, the action more out of fond exasperation than anything.]

Mikoto's fine. [Why is it so natural for the shinki to be used to Mikoto being called 'King'.] If anything, he seems to be....not happier, but almost as if some weight was taken off his shoulders.

[He's not sure how to mention that ever since waking up, Mikoto seemed - not different - but more himself. Like he's finally decided not to bother with the chains that shackled him down.

Izumo might be able to rein his god in a little, but not enough to prevent him from making sure not to lose control.]

You should come over and visit him.

Oh? [ Hazel eyes blink for just a moment. ]

I’m glad. [ And those words come with an expression and change in posture both that are so authentic, it’s as though the sentiment isn’t so much said as felt. ]

You’re right, I should. [ Absently, Tatara starts drawing in the condensation on his glass of ice water, smiling serenely all the while. ] It’s been too long since we’ve seen each other.

[ The disconnect between them doesn’t feel natural.

...Well. Neither does the disconnect between any of HOMRA in this place; having to watch one’s words, careful to recall who knows what about what and whom... It’s exhausting sometimes, to put it simply. And with as big of a mouth as Tatara can be sometimes, it’s quite the tightrope walk. ]

Last I saw him, he was lighting fires for the spirits returning home. [ Because their king is a kind king, even if he doesn’t seem it. ] I stayed with him then, for a little while, because his Sword looked... [ an awkward chuckle ] ...aah, well, it’s seen better days...!

Mm, maybe he'll talk to you more than he does with me.

[Because for whatever reason, Izumo and Mikoto could never communicate with words. It's something the shinki has learned early enough since both of them seem to be practically allergic to words itself, other than their first meeting.

But despite it, Izumo has always been able to read his god better than others. He can tell what to expect, but they never converse in ways normal people would.

At least he knows that there might be a better chance of Mikoto talking to Totsuka more.]

Right, his Sword...

[His expression shifts at the reminder of it. It's a stark contrast to how Anna's looked like - pristine and whole without a single crack - whereas Mikoto's Sword appears as though it's ready to drop at any moment.

He sighs.]

1.C

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