( OPEN ) FIGHTING CRIME BY MOONLIGHT

[transmit]

WHO: Every Outsider interested!
WHAT: Catch-all log for cleaning up (or making more of a mess of) Neo Tokyo's crime scene! Refer to the OOC post here for details. Neo Tokyo's current social and political climate can be found under the World / Setting section here.
WHERE: Neo Tokyo, Japan.
WHEN: Nov 2024 & onward.
WARNINGS: Violence, drug use, threats and coercion … whatever else that happens where crime and criminal activity are involved. Please mark for other CWs if necessary!


From the month of November and onward, Outsiders can find recruitment posters around the base for a specialised subsection of an anonymous Neo Tokyo security agency! Feel free to assume that's where most of the directives come from.

Current quests relating to this player plot can be found under < STREET FIGHTER > and < RISE AND THRIVE > on the QUEST BOARD.

People are free to use this log or their own for open and closed starters. However, if you'd like to contribute to the quest chain or setting changes, please remember to eventually submit your links and a summary under the associated quests! Otherwise, go wild!

Comments

a.

[lostdestiny]

[ Surely no one in their right mind would ask Shinn to do anything undercover after Brasov (probably?), so he is not actually here because he was invited for an interview. He is walking in with a stack of pizza boxes. Does he have the wrong address? Was this a prank order? Did someone in this office actually want a "Bloody Mary pizza, absolutely no garlic"? A side-gig as a delivery driver is full of uncertainty and leads him into some odd places.

Shinn looks from Izou to the run-down office, skeptically. Without zero context, walking into a film noir scene while just trying to make a delivery is extremely bizarre. What wrongdoing is this guy talking about, specifically? Is Shinn about to get a follow-the-red-strings-and-thumbtacked-photos rant against corn on pizza? ]

... I know the city's screwed up, but do you want the pizza or not?

( 1 / 2 )

[hitokiller]

( ... huh. that's not the response he expected.

izou glances up from his drawn-up, digital sketches to behold some dark-haired kid he's never seen before giving him a scrutinizing look. he turns up his nose a little, just barely twisting a foot that's resting on desk to say: )

Who the hell're you? No one ordered a pizza.

( 2 / 2 )

[hitokiller]

( a beat, and then: )

... But if you're offerin' it up, I'll take it off your hands.

( for someone else, maybe, as a bargaining chip. DAMN IT WHY IS HE A VAMPIRE )

[lostdestiny]

[ Shinn checks the address on the delivery instructions again and confirms that if this is a mistake it’s not his mistake, at which point he visibly starts to lose interest. He’s got the right place, the guy will take the food, this seems like it will be a thoroughly uneventful delivery. His expression goes a little unfocused and his eyes light up as he logs the completed task on the network, and he starts to answer the initial question with a bit of a grumble (because hey Shinn hasn’t even done anything to deserve this guy being rude to him … in this immediate interaction): ]

Shimo—

[ No, wait, he’s seen this guy around base, he can use his actual name, right? He drops the boxes on the desk. ]

Shinn Asuka. What’s with the weird setup?

[hitokiller]

( "asuka". such a girly surname for a delivery boy. maybe the kid's feeling opportunistic or something, trying to nab himself a side-job on top of the money he's already making, but izou isn't having it beyond acknowledging that he'll take the food off his hands. if this were a delivery to the wrong place, it wasn't on him to direct them elsewhere, either. he'll just take the win and move on. free food was always a welcome sight to a man who went without that one time he was on the run.

but.

izou turns the name over again in his head, like, where the hell have i heard that before?, until it hits like a hammer and everything comes rushing—the events in brasov, the jeering over the network, and maybe even seeing the back of this kid's head on base somewhere. izou's all limbs as he makes to remove his elevated feet and lean into the desk in a hurry, a palm slamming down on it with enough force to shake his digital screen. )

Shinn?? Ain't you that brat from Yamato who tried to tell me what for? I'm runnin' a serious establishment here against misdeeds and shit. Not a WEIRD one. So park your pizza and then shove off.

[lostdestiny]

Oh. It's you.

[ Shinn slips into surly, dismissive mode in a beat. He has a decent sense of who this guy is from the Yamato comment, and Shinn is even more pissed off than he was before the Outsiders wiped out a village of farmers armed with shovels (and, if he were being fair, which he is not inclined to be at the moment, a sub-population of cultists and/or vampires) in Brasov. ]

What does your serious establishment do, take candy from babies?

[hitokiller]

( will elysium forgive him if there's a body in here?

actually, nevermind. he doesn't need elysium's approval for shit. )

More like give candy to...

( —wait. no. don't give this kid that ammo. izou clicks his tongue. maybe he ought to be vague, given the sort of "organizations" they're trying to infiltrate. )

... It's for public safety, and tackling... injustice. Important, lift-changing stuff like that. The sorta stuff that makes a difference.

[lostdestiny]

[ That sounds like more talk to someone who has been screaming internally (and externally) for a month. ]

So now you're helping people.

[hitokiller]

The hell's that mean? You think I wasn't out there puttin' my neck on the line for people I don't even know?

( and how he's standing behind the desk, at an amazing five foot seven. )

I'm a gotdamn prodigy, and I also get the job done. ... Even if it means causin' a few casualties of my own. But all that's through and done with, and folks are dealing with the consequences best they can. Which is exactly why I'm on the clock doing this goody-two shoes shit to make a difference for all who's left in this city. 'Cause they need me.

[lostdestiny]

[ Congrats, Shinn is 5'6, Izou has finally someone to loom over... marginally. ]

I think if you're so strong, [ if LILITH collectively is so strong, ] then you should be able to get the job done and protect people.

[ But! Okay! He is very slightly pinged by the concept of things being done, dealing with consequences, stop fighting with your head stuck in the past. He points a finger at the files and then at the corkboard. ]

You'd better have a better plan than Brasov.

[ Not pinged enough to be nice, but Shinn doesn't think much of a promise to do "goody-two shoes shit" from someone who didn't care about people falling by the wayside. ]

[hitokiller]

( let this kid judge all he wants.

izou isn't going to back down none on his statement, regardless of the daggers they're staring at each other.

still. as much as he hates to admit it... even internally, he's got a point. a better plan than brasov. the casualties had been too excessive. )

You got any suggestions on your end? For how we should go about things.

( just to test him a little. time to slowly lower back into that cheap office chair, izou keeping a trained eye on shinn and his accusatory finger. )

[lostdestiny]

[ Not at any level deeper than "kill fewer people," because -- ]

You haven't said what you're trying to do, [ he says snidely, flatly. "Tackling wrongdoings" and stopping "misdeeds" is really, really general! Even if they have ruled out taking candy from babies. ]

[hitokiller]

( his lip curls. )

Clean up the city. Stuff that LILITH's had us on before, but harder. The black market's rife with folks funnelin' money around in a bad way, and it all trickles down. To the gangs, and the schools, and as long as we're meant to live here, there's a couple in our ranks who want to do better for it.

( he probably isn't supposed to be this direct, but it's not as direct as someone else would be.

lucky for most, izou doesn't pay much attention to the finer details. he waves a hand lightly. )