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~

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I'm not. [Just putting that on the table, since it kind of sounded like Hitsugaya was apologising for both of them to him. And Hitsugaya's done a decent job of explaining what they're here for, but he's missing the context, so Shun adds it.]

We found it attached to the back of a malfunctioning transformer.

[Tsuzuki shoots Shun a grumpy look at that -- "I'm not," seriously? He can't even stand to hear other people apologizing in his vicinity? -- but he's a bit more interested in the ofuda. He leans forward, scrutinizing it, and then glances around and grabs a shirt he'd left folded up on the changing room chair to shield his hand as he takes it from Hitsugaya.]

It looks like a regular good-luck charm. Except it just says 'good luck,' and not the name of a temple....

[He tugs back a little bit of the tape, checking to see if a temple's name is embroidered across the back instead. No, nothing. There's a little energy around it, enough to make his fingertips tingle slightly even though the shirt, but nothing he wouldn't expect from any charm.]

Where'd you get it?

[Shun, he's so amused, but he hopes you realize that no, he isn't apologizing for you at all. He doesn't protest as Tsuzuki takes the ofuda from him, the tingling energy disappearing along with it.]

Interiors department on the fifth floor. As Kurosaki said, we've found it attached to a malfunctioning transformer.

[But he does study the ofuda a bit.

A charm without the blessing of a god/temple, hm?]

The lights the transformer was attached to were surging badly enough that some of the bulbs exploded. Whatever it's causing, it's not good luck.

[Given Shun doesn't really know the details of trying to identify what an ofuda might do, he figures any information they can give has to be of some use. The point of it not coming from a temple is reasonably noteworthy, though, and Shun looks over the charm with a wary eye.]

It figures someone using charms for something like that wouldn't want them attached to a location, but that makes it sound like whoever did this might've made that themselves.

Maybe they were trying to correct the bad luck that the place has been having?

[Yeah, he doesn't actually believe that. He turns the charm over again in his hands, frowning.]

It's pretty well made, but someone could've done that, sure. They'd just need a sewing machine. And the ability to cast a curse.

[So -- a magician or a priest, if it's somebody mortal at all. And why would a god need to make charms?]

[The small god simply quirks an eyebrow at the shinki as if silently asking if he even believed in his own words.]

If we’re dealing with a mortal, then it’d have to be someone with at least some sort of power or enough knowledge to be able to cast anything like this.

[If it’s a human, Toushirou feels like he’ll just get a headache from the absurdity of it all.]

[Shun has to agree with Hitsugaya's argument there.] If you need specialised knowledge to make one of these in the first place, you'd think they'd know what they were doing.

[Since it sounds like it's not something any completely random person off the street could have done. Still, it might bear asking, since Shun's not nearly as familiar with magic himself as these two are.]

The ability to cast a curse would mean there'd be only a few kinds of people who could do this, right?

Yeah, it'd have to be a sorcerer or a priest. And someone with a major grudge against the owners here, if they caused all this.

[He folds the tape back, and offers the charm back to Hitsugaya.]

You might be able to find out more by taking it apart, if there's something inside. Be careful, though. If it's cursed it might wind up giving you bad luck, too.

[He takes the charm back.]

As if we need any more bad luck.

[Toushirou sighs, though he does give the shinki a nod in thanks.]

[Even as Hitsugaya takes the charm back, Shun raises a brow slightly at Tsuzuki's suggestion, pulling out his dagger. It's fairly small, with rounded edges, but looks extremely sharp, and Shun looks pointedly to the charm.]

We could take it apart without touching it directly. We'd just need to be cautious about it.

[Tsuzuki gives them a dubious look, and puts the shirt down on the chair, spreading it out a little to cover the upholstery.]

Sure. Just don't cut the shirt, I haven't paid for it yet!

[Not that it's his money he's spending today, but he liked that shirt, dammit. He wants to have a chance to wear it before somebody accidentally puts a knife through it.]

There are always more shirts if Kurosaki does cut it.

[But thanks, Tsuzuki.

Toushirou is going to put the charm onto the shirt now and nods to Shun.]

The Heavens are paying for this anyway. I'm sure they can afford one extra shirt. [Shun is 100% unsympathetic to your plight, Tsuzuki. Nonetheless, he's still careful just on principle, placing his finger on the remnants of tape to hold the charm down while not actually making contact with the thing itself. Picking his starting point carefully, he pierces the fabric of the charm with the blade and pulls it along the very edges to remove the stitching keeping it together. The knife goes through cleanly, though given how often Shun sharpens it, he'd be more surprised if it didn't.

Once he's done, he moves the top layer of the charm off to one side so they can see what's in it.]

Yeah, but I liked that shirt, I wanted to buy it...

[Tsuzuki trails off as Shun levers the top of the charm's fabric off, baring a tightly folded piece of paper inside. Tsuzuki pats his pockets and produces a ballpoint pen; he pulls the cap off, and carefully, using the pen tip and the cap to avoid having to touch the paper himself, starts unfolding it.]

[As Tsuzuki works on unfolding the charm, Toushirou begins to notice the written words on it. He frowns, recognizing it.]

We can at least be certain it's an ofuda for bad luck.

[But there are words at the bottom of the charm, eyebrows furrowed.]

...Do either of you two recognize that language?

[Well, at least they know one thing for sure, though Shun finds himself frowning at the unfamiliar letters around the bad luck note before too long. He's trying to pick out what language it might be, but when Hitsugaya asks, he shakes his head.]

Never seen it before. But I haven't studied languages for a while. [So he's just going to turn his head pointedly to Tsuzuki to see if he can identify anything about it.]

I don't recognize it either.

[Tsuzuki turns the paper to face him with the tip of the pen cap, frowning at it. The spell for bad luck is clear, but the letters -- symbols? -- under it aren't Japanese, or Chinese, or anything else that even looks familiar.]

I don't know many languages, though. You should talk to somebody who's better with them.

[Toushirou eyes the characters for a moment, shaking his head a bit.]

That'd be our best chance right now since none of us here seem to recognize it.

[And he's seen a lot of weird characters, including Kurotsuchi's strange language for his technology.]

[Unfortunately, Shun can't think of anyone specific who's good with languages right now, but he does glance over to the other two as if he has an idea.]

Unless either of you have someone specific in mind, I could take it and ask around. I know a few of the people who volunteer at the library, at least, and could get them to keep an eye out.

[There wasn't exactly a guarantee Chikusa would comply, but Izuku might.]

[Tsuzuki nods.]

With all of the people from different countries, or even worlds, someone's got to recognize it, right?

I don't know anyone in particular who's an expert at that, though.

[He frowns down at the paper for a few more seconds.]

... It really is weird.

That's fine with me. Someone should be able to be familiar with it, at least.

[Especially since none of them here doesn't seem to know it.

Whatever it is, it doesn't exactly make Toushirou feel the least bit comfortable with the unknown characters.]

[There's a short nod from Shun at that, and he reaches into one of his pockets to withdraw what appears to be a slightly dirty cleaning cloth. He has been assisting the staff on and off, but he didn't expect it to come in useful quite this way.

Carefully reaching down, he tucks the cloth around the edges of the disassembled charm, flips it over, and folds it tightly and neatly in. After inspecting his work to make sure it's not going to come undone easily, he picks the charm up again.]

I'll keep an eye out for any other letters like it in this building as well. I doubt it would be just the one thing out of place.

I will, too. I haven't seen that much around here, but if there're bad luck charms causing some of these problems, that can't be the only one still left around the building.

There's too much still going wrong for that.

[He summons up a smile, glancing back at them.] Let me know what you find out.

Uh, and can I change back into my shirt so I can go pay for these?

[He gives a nod.]

If we stumble across more, we should try to keep them until we find out more.

[Assuming someone doesn't get to it first. But a glance at Shun briefly before he nods at Tsuzuki again. With that, he'll be the first to teleport out of there.]

Agreed. And do what you like. I'll keep an eye out for more charms.

[Giving a somewhat dismissive wave of the hand as if to say he really doesn't care what Tsuzuki does with the shirt now, Shun follows Hitsugaya's lead and teleports out of the changeroom.]

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sweetdeath - 2017-09-22 12:26 (UTC) - Expand

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