[Log/Open] savor every drop

[sakaya]

Who: Shuten-Douji and You!
When: December 1st - 13th
Where: All around; the Flophouse, dives and bars at nighttime, the docks, and Dogtown (Widowmaker).
Summary: How is an oni settling into this gloomy slice of Americana? Let's find out together.
Warnings: Copious amounts of alcohol consumption, depictions of animal cruelty/death for Entity feeding. And just Shuten in general. Will update if things change.

i. Let's Find a Bar, So Dark We Forget Who We Are

[ It's very funny, to Shuten-Douji, that she's been quite tolerant with the people around her. The crisis that looms over everyone doesn't weigh as heavily on the oni as it should. Though if worse comes to worst, she'll figure out how to proceed from there.

It should be great fun either way.

But for now, the past few weeks have been nothing more than downtime and a period where she takes a backseat to see how things unfold. However, she of all people, can't possibly do that without a good drink or two. Or rather, more.

In the early evenings to the very late hours past midnight, the small young-looking woman of Japanese origin can be found in a bar or a dive trying out the Western nibbles and foods and drinking more than her weight in alcohol, so much so that intrigued locals have started to attempt a drinking contest with Shuten. She's taken on the challenge gladly. So if you happen to be enjoying the nightlife of Gloucester, one can happen upon an amusing scene of a contest in progress, or the terribly messy aftermath of one with patrons either passed out or on the brink of starting a drunken fight with the smug Shuten-Douji. Join her, make a bet, it's all well and good as long as it's enjoyable for her and if you pay for her drinks. ]

ii. In the Dark, Our Truths are Revealed

[ At the Flophouse, Shuten is taking up space in the communal space, lounging all over the sofa, just seeing who is coming in or going out. Here, her true visage, horns, and sharp teeth are on display and it appears this is where she's fairly relaxed despite finding ways to enjoy the outside.

So if you're a resident of the Flophouse or visiting a friend, there's an oni who's either napping peacefully or fully awake, nursing some sake (sorry, the room smells like booze), and waving to you cheekily, her voice ever so slightly slurred. ]

Welcome hooome. ♥

iii. CW: Animal cruelty, death | Our Bodies Bound by This Land

[ There's nothing out of place about a dead seagull on the the Docks. Not even two dead seagulls. More than that starts to become a concern and a concern it is because the appearances of the dead birds start to ever so subtly increase over the next two weeks and then pauses.

One is found floating in the water around the docks. Another, its head smashed against the side of a boat. A few days later, a seagull can be found pathetically flopping about, its leg and one wing are broken. It seems to have escaped a rather nasty fate (or someone had let it escape).

Another bird has simply been ripped open with some effort, blood and guts spilling all over, its corpse left to rot on the northeast side of the harbor. This can be blamed on the local gangs that are present around this area and yet this is uncharacteristic of them on the whole. Surely it is just some sick hoodlum trying to get a rise out of everyone?

Anyway, if you happen to be at the Docks during the daytime, Shuten's found a nice space for herself, dangling her legs on the edge and staring up at the sky. There's still a lot of seagulls to watch after all. ]

Comments

iii

[septieme]

[Is it really any subtle, if rumors are already spreading within days about some "seagull sadist" both from hearsay and online? Suppose whoever responsible doesn't particularly care, as the corpses only keep piling up day after day. The dead birds do tend to linger, no one wants to touch them even if the police are called, and while grisly footage have briefly plagued social media over the Internet, the 'novelty' also came and went. It doesn't take long for the clicks to trickle down once the shock factor can no longer reach a high view count on its own, but the reduced traffic around the docks is telling enough of these displays' active effects. Not even mild weather on a sunny weekend day is enough to draw many locals out to come visit this part of town anymore, despite the abundance of shops while the end-of-the-year holidays have begun closing in. All that makes those actually out here stick out that much more, notably a short-haired woman in glasses wearing steel-tipped boots, dark leggings, and a knee-length skirt, all clad in a black women's winter jacket that blends in quite easily with the populace despite the sombre colors. She's also shouldering a full-looking backpack and carrying trash picker, however, a undeniably suspicious mix of equipment to lug around. No one's called her out for it yet, however, whether it's because the trash picker looks like a cane from afar, or there simply haven't been enough people to do so.

Today is not the first time this week she's here, she may actually be recognizable to anyone else who's been often lingering around these parts the past few days. While she usually comes later during the evening on weekdays, she doesn't linger, and after she's gone, so would any sign of dead seagulls, at least for a short while.

...Today, however, instead of another carcass, what she finds is a weakly flopping pile of feathers dyed in blood, one wing twitching uselessly with nothing else moving--as nothing else can move. Not even capable of walking, yet still alive despite how impossible it is for it to continue living. What will happen to it, left like that? It can't fly, can't walk, can't look for food, maybe can't even swallow anymore if it's also injured internally. Is it just waiting to die from starvation and dehydration, or will some wild cat or dog come put it out of its misery first?

She only spends a few seconds staring at the hopeless creature, then simply saunters over to it in a unhurried gait and stops once she's standing right in front of it. The long beam of the trash picker then darts forth in a blink without hesitation, its tongs clamping around the seagull's neck before jerking it sideways in one decisive motion. Just like a gardener snapping away excessive and unruly branches from a bush, the bone is snapped, and without further ado, the animal goes still.

...

It's done with enough subtlety to not attract attention, no ordinary passerby behind her would've been able to bear witness to what just happened with how her own body had effectively shielded the scene. But if someone was watching intently, then that would be another story. ...No matter, in any case. At least it hadn't been found by some feral cat or dog; it still LOOKS like a bird, which is more than what could be said if some beast more interested in it as a snack were to happen across it first.]

[sakaya]

[ The snapping bones and the swiftness of it are enough to catch her attention and make the oni turn her head ever so slightly towards Ciel's way. Shuten wants to laugh out loud at how serious the young lady was upon putting that pitiful bird out of its misery. However, she keeps it to herself, staying silent until she finally speaks up: ]

Oh, isn't that a shame?

[ Barely an ounce of remorse, hardly any regrets... But her monstrous logic dictates that it could have been much worse. ]

They're quite fragile aren't they?

[septieme]

[For uttering the word 'shame' out loud, the person who's saying it sure doesn't sound like she's putting much weight to it... Thus it is with an equal lack of it, perhaps, that she retrieves a paper bag folded away in her backpack, and proceeds to unceremoniously pick up the dead bird's corpse before dropping it into that.]

No more or less than any other of their kind, I'd say.

[sakaya]

For a moment, you had a very interesting expression on your face there young lady.

[ Shuten-Douji's voice always had a flavor of coyness to it, but even more so at the moment. She can't help it; she just saw an intriguing sight after all. ]

I doubt the demise of the little feathered friend is enough to stir anything in anyone though.

[septieme]

Did I?

[She looks suitably thoughtful, almost as if she has no idea what Shuten is going on about.

...

With a small shrug, she rolls close the top of the paper bag up.]

Probably not, if it was just this one. ["If".]

[sakaya]

What's a dead bird or two? At least it isn't bothering anyone else.

[ At least. There's something being implied here, but hell if Shuten will be straightforward about it.

She stands up, moving towards the other woman. ]

It's far better than going after bigger birds.

[septieme]

Well, you know what they say. Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is... [At that, she tilts her head and closes her eyes, as if making a genuine show of trying to remember.] Hmm. What was it, again?

[..."Bigger", huh.]

Is it? It may be good if whoever's doing this already got the results they wanted, whatever that may be, but this sort of thing is always a slippery slope. They could eventually become greedier, and then what?

[sakaya]

The results are rather mild.

[ Shuten-Douji is already very greedy. But one de-powered Servant versus known and unknown forces are not ideal circumstances for her to act on it completely. ]

Though it was more of a way of testing the waters.

[septieme]

[Not gonna bother with "subtleties"? That earns the smaller girl a brief glance, followed by a small shrug of her shoulders. Alright, then.]

What were you expecting? As you were just saying, "what's a dead bird or two?" "Better than bigger ones", too.

[sakaya]

... I have a question for you, girl.

[ Shuten glances away, though it's easy to catch a soft frown as she stares out into the ocean. ]

Coming from a monster, isn't it easy to assume, I would know how to spread fear and destruction?

[septieme]

[That makes two of them looking out at sea, though Ciel probably looks slightly more awkward what with holding onto a trash picker and a paper bag, hm. Nothing suspicious here...

She does take a thoughtful pause to mull over the question for a few beats, before answering calmly.]

Destruction, maybe, but fear, not necessarily. The former is an objective and physical state, the latter a subjective and mental one; "eye of the beholder", and all that. Given how this city is already frequently steeped in strange and unsettling occurrences, I would imagine that the people living here are more accustomed to them than someone from an average peaceful city. The port and Dogtown are supposedly among the most supernatural parts of town too, according to hearsay.

cw: torture, general violence description

[sakaya]

[ Shuten doesn't give a clear reaction for a few seconds. Then she sighs and chuckles softly. Truly, she isn't at her best at all in this situation. ]

You've been here a little longer than I have, so I've no reason to disregard your words totally. Of course, it'd be a given that some worthlessly dead birds wouldn't do much.

[ But it's her only start for now; though she'd love to wrap her hands around the throat of a human and split their bones in half, the immediate consequence and backlash would be too much of a bother to deal with by herself. With her natural impulses and having to be beholden to an outside entity, the monster is in a conundrum.

(And in her own way, she still just wants to see if there's anything of worth here, anyone who can keep her whims at bay, just before she goes, "To hell with it.") ]

I'll just have to keep at it slowly then, one day at a time. Isn't that what humans do anyways?

[septieme]

That's just my personal observation. Considering our difference in perspective, it wouldn't be surprising if you don't come to the same conclusion than I did.

[She shrugs, and gives out a faint exhale.]

Maybe it's the technology, video footage can easily be doctored in this era. Maybe it's social media as a whole, fostering a need to stand out at the expense of everything else. [She's mainly thinking about last month when they had to sort through tiktok videos for supernatural happenings, but the worm game that's entrenching itself around the office is another recent example, hm.] Though I suppose the people can't be held at fault for acting irrationally, when the city they live in is also an irrational place. It's probably part of why their sense of fear is skewered, in any case. There's many cases of mysterious disappearances that get reported to the local police too, and a grand majority of them remain unsolved to this very day.

[...

Has she said too much? Hm.]

[sakaya]

[ Mm, yes. The machines. Having spent time at the other Chaldea base, Shuten is familiar with the advanced technologies the organization has though even at her drunkest, she wouldn't be able to explain heads or tails of it. The current technology in this world is a few degrees removed from what was there though.

The oni listens carefully to the rest of the young woman's explanation, not saying anything for a minute or two. ]

Well, people do disappear every day.

[ And hell, she can do a disappearance rather well. ]

Sounds like the cause of such is doing too good of a job.

[septieme]

[That's one element Chaldea wouldn't have to deal with, at least not when the Grand Order is active. Secret organizations don't need to worry about public opinion when the present no longer exists, and with it, anything that could express it on any significant scale.]

Even people like us. We still don't know how we ended up here or how to willingly leave, but outsiders of our kind have been disappearing, too. We don't have any information other than knowing they can no longer be found or reached, so the best case scenario is just as likely as the worst.

[With that, she lets another pause sit between them.

...]

So knowing how populated this city remains despite all these unusual happenings, and the significant amount of missing people cases that remain unsolved to this very day, bird and man have more in common than one would first assume, wouldn't they.

[She's watching Shuten quite intently now, expression neutral despite the sharper quality of her gaze.]