Scene #9079: 3AM-2: 3PM Scramble

Owner	Pose
Futaba Nuki	Today's like most other days in Sotenbori: Lively, but not too lively. It's still early enough in the day that the sun is shining brightly as parents wait to pick up their kids from school, but not so late that everyone's rushing to get back home yet. Club activities haven't started for the high schoolers yet, but members of the go home club are already raring to get started. The end of the work day is still far, FAR away for most office workers, so anything going on would be a welcome distraction right about now. In other words, it's the perfect time for Futaba to get eyes and ears on the upcoming festival. The timing couldn't be better, either, since she completely forgot to do any kind of advertising for it ahead of time, and now she's making it several people's problem. Well, not really. Yelling words loudly isn't anything new for her, but she just doesn't want to do it on her own because she knows she'll get distracted and wander off or something. The meeting place is at an intersection where both sides of a river is visible in one direction, high-rises and bustling walking streets are visible in another, and the intersection itself is surrounded by little suburban houses in every direction. Futaba's here, of course, sporting a shrine maiden's white kosode/top with orange hakama/pants that looks a little out of place on her considering she's still got the big flappy red scarf and giant honking tanuki tail. When people start filtering in, she greets everyone with a high wave. "Hey there! Thanks for coming. Was gettin' worried I'd have to do this alone. Festivals're fun, but getting all the fliers out and putting folks on notice that it's happening is just so... Samey sometimes, you know?" She explains, already starting to stroll down the street towards the high-rises. "Figured we could do a little Q and A while we're here, since I heard some of you ran into some trouble here a while back? Course, if you got business somewhere else in town, I won't stop ya!" She adds that last bit with an easygoing laugh, arms crossed behind her head as she saunters towards the first destination of flyer-distribution: A fresh fish market. Like any other fish market that anyone could find in a well-to-do-enough city, it's stocked with row upon row of all sorts of fish, sourced from all over Japan and arranged on beds of ice. Flies occasionally buzz over them for a second or two until a frog faced youkai snatches them out of the air with a quick tongue snap. There's also vegetable peddlers off to the sides suggesting good dishes to prepare depending on what types of fish customers show up with.
Calvin Nash	Calvin's truck pulls into the intersection and gently rolls to a stop off the side of the road near the meeting point. What else would he do? Walk? That's for the birds. He steps out in a comfortable-looking orange-grey flannel, faded blue jeans and square-toed light brown cowboy boots, snagging his black cowboy hat from the passenger seat before closing the door. Was gettin' worried I'd have to do this alone. "Happy to help," he says, taking some fliers to help pass them out. "What kind of festival is it, anyhow?" Figured we could do a little Q and A while we're here, since I heard some of you ran into some trouble here a while back? "Wasn't no trouble," Calvin says, with the kind of tone that implies his definition of 'trouble' is pretty far removed from most people's. "Just a ghost got riled up by some peckerhead in a suit of armor. We had it licked before too long." Calvin leafs through the first flier in the sheaf he has--that, plus Futaba's info should be enough for him to start making pitches. "What's the deal with those? The armored guys with the fancy swords. They all that bound and damn determined to piss in the wind?"
Echolalia	Echolalia is worried about the ghost that tried to murder her. She's less worried about what it means about her that she is inclined to worry about a ghost that tried to murder her but to be fair it didn't seem personal...it tried to kill a lot of people. And if Futaba is going to do a Q&A, Echolalia thinks this is the perfect opportunity to ask questions about ghosts! And how to help them! She sure isn't sure that particular ghost has spooked their last haunting! Echolalia arrives wearing a pair of leaf patterned shorts paired with a leaf patterned tantkop.She is wearing a baseball cap which her ridiculous hair somehow stays underneath of and a pair of antlers stick out from holes snipped into the hat up top. She has a plate of takoyaki and is stuffing those skewers in her mouth like no tommorow. She's eating the skewers too. Not because she likes the taste of skewers, mind, but because that way she doesn't have to find a trash receptacle. "Hey Futaba! What are we handing fliers out for?" Oh she probably came more for the Q&A part. "I actually wanted to ask you about spooky stuff, but I'll totally help hand out fliers in the meanwhile!" She smiles at Calvin, waving excitedly at him with both arms. "Actually it's about that ghost I was wondering about! I sort of read their mind a little, and I think they miiiight be a victim of something...bad? Do doctors cost money here?"
Natsuki Nuki	The last time everyone interacted with the Sotenbori crew, it was the dead of night and people were leaping off of rooves and out from shaded alleys to interact with a metal-covered jerk on a bridge, and the demon bowling wall of a hungry ghost or disquiet spirit! Also, the last time everyone interacted with the Sotenbori crew, two locals had been engaged in a familial fight over the particular details of who-told-who certain truths. This fight in the periphery, between brother and sister, had happened before the conflict with the Metal Priest started, and split up before people could intervene or glean much context beyond vague discontent. One figure from that disagreement, Natsuki Nuki, had lept into the fray on the bridge and made introduction of herself that night - a local, and a yokai. The other figure from that disagreement, who had watched it in the periphery as Echolalia repaired the bridge and Natsuki engaged in fashion correction of a racist and almost a Demon Marshall, was Takeshi. Keen eyed sorts might remember the slick-back of hair, or the color of suit, or the flash of his tiepin in the darkness, or, he might be a complete mystery -- but he's sure approaching the wandering festival promoting crew. Dressed in a light tan suit and pants, black shirt, red tie with three-dot leaf tie pin, the slightly stocky build of the Osakan punk-coded type looks immediately familial to the shrine maiden dressed Futaba - dark-nosed and dark-masked. Unlike Futaba, her brother doesn't rock the tail out in public, but there's a kind of soft fringe of fluff about his cheeks and collar. "Well, well, well," Begins Takeshi, confident walk snapping shoesoles to the market ground below. "If it isn't the he-roes of the hour and the fine Demon Marshal himself, back to our humble part of Japan." Smug, left hand tucked into jacket pocket, Takeshi offers out his hand while Futaba arranges and smiles. Not even a little bowing. "Is Futaba roping you all into doing her work for her? It only took one person, before, to make everything run fine, but then she ran off, and now..." Takeshi's out hand gestures to the big ringed tail hanging out of the hakama pants. "... Our poor miko needs help." Pulling a dum-dum from a pocket and setting it between his teeth like a cigarette he's nursing between lips, Takeshi looks between the two festival-helping attendees. "Those Metal Priests? They're determined to be problems, that's certain. But so are most heckling spirits. For Priests..." Takeshi shrugs. "And for unquiet spirits, the answer is the same: that's why we have festivals."
Merelisa Shaynore	Late night monster-slaying isn't necessarily a task that demands a followup visit from Merelisa. She's well aware that the part of the routine that she's best at is killing the enemy and returning peace to the harried civilians, and what comes after is... either pleasant or stressful, but certainly below her perview. She couldn't visit every town in the world after saving it, so the role that Andromeda plays in the life of each city she defends is clearly demarcated. But, she's a little desperate. And this world has a Partner on it, so it's only polite that she give a little more attention to the places her peers are from! It might be rude, even, to not come back, and what kind of a first impression would that set for her? Sure, Merelisa wouldn't typically feel like she has any place lurking around a small city like this, but if you think about it, it's actually more heroic to show up and better get to know some of the others that were there. It's the opposite of condescending. It's noble, even. "Hey there! Thanks for coming." Merelisa hasn't met Futaba before, but she's met Natsuki, and the family resemblence is pretty readable, especially if you've been stomachaching about it since four in the morning. She's wearing a grey rayon jumpsuit, ankle hems loose around a pair of deep red heels. Across her shoulders is a matching crimson jacket, gold detailing on the shoulders and cuffs, looking like a corporate girlie whose office dresswear theme is cyberpunk anime. She'd look right at home in Tokyo. She lifts her (round, gold-rimmed) sunglasses up to her forehead, and smiles at Futaba. "You must be Natsuki's little sister? I'm Merelisa, bearer of the Stellar Heart Andromeda, nice to meet you. Don't worry at all about that little fight before; it wasn't any trouble at all." "So," She starts, in the exact tone that's always followed with 'how was school today?', while politely surveilling the fish market, "I heard from her that you're involved with Elite business too? Have you gotten up to anything interesting lately?" "Is Futaba roping you all into doing her work for her?" "Mmm?" Merelisa smiles bemusedly at Takeshi, first mistaking him for a high schooler before noting the family resemblence. "I wouldn't say that, I'm happy to help with..." She's not entirely sure what Futaba needs from her. It's not really why she's here, anyways. "... Putting up flyers?" "They all that bound and damn determined to piss in the wind?" "I wasn't too impressed with what I heard about them. Some group of reactionary purists whose response to learning the truth about the world was to try and throw the covers back over their head and shut it out by killing anyone they disliked."
Futaba Nuki	Trucks like Calvin's aren't commonly seen out here. It's not that they don't have trucks here, but most of the trucks that come out here are the larger sorts with the big boxy cabins making their stops all over the place to drop off pallets upon pallets of stuff. Naturally, some inquisitive parents come around to gawk at it and snap pictures of it on their phones, stopping short of actually touching it since it's still got mysterious outside energy to it. Also, because they don't want to leave their wares and purchases unattended for too long. Echolalia's appearance, curiously enough, doesn't get nearly as much attention. There's a fair amount of yokai wandering around, after all, and some of them are even mixed in with the people doing their early afternoon shopping. What might get some wandering locals' attention, though, is the baseball cap depending on if she's sporting any logos on it that don't belong to a local team. Merelisa's Tokyo-corp look gets some heads turning as well, largely because she looks like she should be in THE city instead of THIS semi-city as someone that's distinctly not a local like Takeshi. "You must be Natsuki's little sister?" Hearing an unfamiliar voice mentioning a familiar name, Futaba nods quickly as she looks over at Merelisa with a curious glint in her eyes. "Eh? Yeah, that's right. Futaba, local ninja hero of this here Sotenbori. Glad to meetcha! Heh, you ran into sis already? Bet she pulled off some cool stuff when all that bridge business was going on. Don't worry, she's way more chill than she acts, I... Think." Right? It HAS been a while, but... "Is Futaba roping you all into doing her work for her?" "... Putting up flyers?" "Hey, hey, heeey. I'm not makin' them do ALL the work. I just need more people around to get eyes this way!" She explains with a quick wave of her flyer stack, predictably getting some of the folks in the market to glance over and smirking just a bit at that. Futaba takes it all in stride as she usually does, of course, still beaming brightly despite being made out to be some kind of moocher. "You know how it goes... You get a bunch of unfamiliar faces arund, people start lookin' over to see what's goingon, they see us leaving flyers behind, they start chatting, and then some of them show up!" She brushes her nose lightly with her free hand a moment later, trying to be subtle (and failing) as she keeps waving the flyers around and grinning confidently at Merelisa. "See what I mean? Of course, I wouldn't mind if anyone took some of these and slapped wherever looks good..." After that unsubtle hint, she slides on over to Takeshi a moment later to deliver a dramatically overwrought (yet visibly gentle) karate chop to the top of the head. "And don't be putting this all on me! We wouldn't even need this kind of thing if those metal guys didn't start messing things up again." She leans in a little closer to tug on his ears, still not hard enough to (actually) hurt, but definitely enough to be annoying. "I'm still not letting you off the hook yet, either." She says, refusing to elaborate further before stepping back.
Futaba Nuki	"What kind of festival is it, anyhow?" "What are we handing fliers out for?" "Glad you asked! Takeshi's got the gist of it since we've always got upset spirits roaming around, but..." Futaba nods at pretty much everyone's assessments of the Metal Priests. "They're not making things any easier, and they've been getting louder lately. Kind of nuts, but they've got the money to get the gear to really crap things up for folks around here just trying to live their lives." She wrinkles her nose, pauses, then grumbles. "And they just had to take a cool name, too..." Shaking off that distraction, Futaba turns back to the group with her hands still crossed behind her head. "Anyway. It's gonna be a pretty typical festival to throw up some offerings, calm some of the roaming spirits down, and then. THEN." Her hands come up in front of her for dramatic effect, turning the flyer around to reveal-"Then there's gonna be a garbage collection race! We're gonna have people putting out their bags on the side of the road, and our contestants'll be piling it up and dropping it off at checkpoints all over the place to see who can get the most stuff!" Another beat, and Futaba slowly turns to Takeshi. "... Oh. We're gonna need permits for that." The implied task delegation is way too obvious there. "I sort of read their mind a little, and I think they miiiight be a victim of something...bad? Do doctors cost money here?" "Whoa... Cool! I mean, the power. Not the..." Futaba, realizing her flub, coughs into her hand and tries to blow right over that. "That's usually the case with ghosts, yeah... Unfinished business, bad vibes around how they died, the works. You caught something from that.. Er. The priest or the ghost? And doctors aren't crazy expensive, I don't think." She looks over at Takeshi, like he might know. "I haven't been to one since I was... Fff. Ages ago, so. Bro? When's the last time you went?" Of course Futaba wouldn't need to go to the doctor. She just cheats with her transformations.
Calvin Nash	"Hey, Ms. Echolalia," Calvin offers with a neighborly tone and a little wave in return. If it isn't the he-roes of the hour and the fine Demon Marshal himself, back to our humble part of Japan. "How's it goin', boss? Calvin Nash." he offers Takeshi a firm handshake. He probably already knows his name, but Calvin's just being polite. "Don't think I got your name last time." Calvin is not necessarily a keen-eyed sort--especially not in the middle of fights and double especially not in the middle of ones threatening to get worse the longer they go on. Is Futaba roping you all into doing her work for her? Calvin's broad shoulders lift briefly. "She asked, we answered." Those Metal Priests? They're determined to be problems, that's certain. I wasn't too impressed with what I heard about them. And they just had to take a cool name, too... "Well." Calvin half-shakes his head. It's probably beginning to seem, to anyone that's spent any prior amount of time with him, like that word has a very specific meaning to him, distinct from the meaning it would otherwise have. "So it's housekeeping," he says, after Futaba and Takeshi's explanation of the purpose of the festival. He nods. It doesn't seem to bother him. Calvin, as tall as he is, is pretty good at using his arms to flag people down and pass out those fliers. "You want any help with running it, too, you just let me know."
Natsuki Nuki	Takeshi is a bit of an odd sort, and Merelisa laserbeaming him as a high schooler on aura alone is direly accurate. He's puffed up just walking around, doing a Big Man walk and strutting around the fishmarket with his lollipop-hanging expression that just about gets there on pure confidence but falls short by the way the end-roll is pure white thin stick-roll, and no tobacco. The family resemblance is unmistakable, though, and the dark mask around the eyes and burn about the tip of his nose shaves off some of the puffed up punk just on fuzz value. It's incredible that the family resemblance is so consistent among the three siblings, seeing as all three are apparently shapeshifters, but some things don't wash out of three raised-together sorts. Natsuki's thin explanation of her family previously on radios had not really explained the nuance of every interaction, obviously, and she wasn't harping on her sister's miko duties today for whatever reason. Instead, there was Takeshi. Instead, the youngest brother (by only a nose!) filled his role. Dropping his barely-enjoyed dumdum like a cigarette that would be uncouth to smoke before a lady onto the fish market ground, Takeshi moves his shoesole over the sugary treat and smushes it out like embers - giving a hard cronch instead. Grinning with little brother sleaze, he wipes his hand off on his jacket and offers it out Western style to Merelisa. "Takeshi Nuki, the smart one, at your pleasure, Lady Shaynore." He shifts from handshake to pulling the palm in for a chaste bowing kiss and grinning look-up that is absolutely affected by movies and telenovelas and little real world experience but full prideful performance. Retreating after a moment to scoff at Calvin's gumption at going so far to help with flyers, Takeshi runs his fingers through his slicked back hair to scratch at his scalp and chew on the outside of his cheek thoughtfully. "It's all this ninja business, sis, I keep telling you." Takeshi complains, tch-hissing and glancing away. "If you just engaged in some real business, you could just hire some guys to put up fliers." Suspect for a moment, Takeshi leans his shoulders back and gazes around with a faintly flushed grin - amused with himself. "Not that any of my guys are free to help." He looks at the flyers being waved under the Partner Merelisa's face, and swipes the handful. "But don't bother the Partner with it, gah. Do I have to do everything??" He grumbles. Then, Futaba's real plan is explained and revealed to Takeshi and he gasps and points. "Ah?? You're just getting an interesting crowd together? Maybe you aren't such a useless ninja baby at business! Ha!" Bending down to slap his knee, Takeshi's moment of laughter turns into uproarious guffawing and 'she can't be serious -- oh wait she is!!'-type bubbling waves of directed mirth. "Garbage--" He wheezes. "You're going to make people race for garbage! Oh yeah, I'm totally getting these signs up!" 'Do doctors cost money here?' "Kind of? All businesses cost money. Not that I go to doctors - I just pay them." Takeshi claims boldly, smirking all the while. "Expensive service, on-call clinics, but I've got economies of scale-" Crowds of goons with medical bills. "-to keep in mind outside of myself. You should try it sometime, sis." "Thinkin' outside yourself."
Echolalia	''That's why we have festivals.'' "Oh sure, that makes sense. Though I think this one's like--a murder victim. Maybe murdered by some kind of bowling thing? I'm not sure why, but they seem to be looking for someone in particular? I don't know if like, someone they cared about or like their killer though." Echolalia smiles at Calvin, glancing over to Natsuki's needling of Futaba and she kind of finds it weirdly endearing? She doesn't read it as being wholly meanspirited so much as typical sibling needling. But she seems a little confused by something. She looks around in bewilderment, eyes settling on Calvin again as he mentions housekeeping before looking back to Futaba. "Yeah... unfinished business. That's why I figured we could maybe... solve the mystery?" She suggests. "I mean I'm sure a festival will fix the haunting, but there was still a murder--and someone else might still need help. I think it'll really help them sleep easy if we solve this crime and put everything right. I mean, as 'right' as we can when ghosts are concerned." ''Er. The priest or the ghost?'' "The ghost was worried about medical bills. Or maybe they were other bills? The ghost wasn't really super clear, I just am pretty sure they were killed and I dunno if I'd feel comfortable not knowing the story now that I know what I do know."
Calvin Nash	If you just engaged in some real business, you could just hire some guys to put up fliers. Calvin side-eyes Takeshi. Maybe you aren't such a useless ninja baby at business! Ha! His jaw settles, like he's chewing words prior to spitting them out. You're going to make people race for garbage! Oh yeah, I'm totally getting these signs up! "Son," says Calvin, turning around from his flier-flinging to gesture at Takeshi lecturingly with the pamphlets. "There's more to life than a quick buck. Your sister understands that, which is why she's out here doing something for Sotenbori. You want the kind of respect that lasts?" He then fwips the pamphlets into the palm of the open hand to accentuate his point: "Don't piss on community." With his point delivered, he gives Takeshi a literal point of his finger, that same point he uses for Aidan and Petra--admonishing a wayward pet.
Merelisa Shaynore	"Futaba, local ninja hero of this here Sotenbori." "Ninja hero, huh? How's that going for you? I've known a few of those before, actually." Merelisa isn't actually much older than Futaba, but put in proximity to her, she feels a lot older than her. It's also just nice to check on how the local heroes are doing! "Takeshi Nuki, the smart one, at your pleasure, Lady Shaynore." Stomping out a dum-dum like that is the exact blend of sleazy and endearing that transmutes the former into being even more endearing. The peachfuzz yakuza actually elicits a little giggling gasp when he takes her hand in for a kiss, like he hit the thinnest sliver of 'perfect success' in a timing minigame that could've had terrible consequences otherwise, based on how Merelisa looks. "Oh, gosh, the smart one, are you? Well, you definitely know how to introduce yourself." "You know how it goes... You get a bunch of unfamiliar faces arund, people start lookin' over to see what's goingon, they see us leaving flyers behind, they start chatting, and then some of them show up!" Merelisa smiles, one hand on her hip. It's not entirely clear whether she's conscious of how much she sticks out or not. She's, of course, bedazzled in a way that can only be intentional, between her clearly high-quality and eye-catching outfit and jewelry-- including that ancient-looking woven-gold gemstone medallion around her neck-- but there's no trace of her feeling like she's out of place. She's not metaphorically purse-clutching or turning up her nose at the smaller-city airs. And also-- "I'm here already, so yup, why not. I'll put up some flyers too. It's better than just following around watching you do the work, right?" Maybe a little jarring for a gilded girlboss to be so willing to engage in a sidequest like that. "If you just engaged in some real business, you could just hire some guys to put up fliers." "You could, but Futaba's got a point too. There's always people putting up flyers, but it's usually relegated to people who aren't interesting in their own right, and people can sense that when they're looking around, even after, you know? Besides," She plucks the flyers back out of Takeshi's hand, and takes a stapler to snap open so she can start putting them up. "If I let myself be 'too good' for something like this, then I'd just be sitting around doing nothing, instead!" "Then there's gonna be a garbage collection race!" Garbage race... that might be pushing Merelisa's tolerance for getting her hands dirty after all. Thankfully, she doesn't have to actually participate, and the spiritual soothing part of the festival sounds adorable. "So it'll be cleaning up the town spiritually and literally. That's kind of clever, I think." There's not quite enough passion behind saying that for it to sound sincere, but it's well-meaning. Merelisa stays alongside the group to affix flyers to telephone poles as they come up, slowly working the way through her stack.
Natsuki Nuki	Takeshi, on Merelisa after the hand-smek, chortles as he nods. "The smart one, Lady Shaynore, for appreciating the finer things." He says, while looking at the Tokyo fashion walk Stellar Heart wielder. He knows what he's after. He even winks! "Simple, my good lady. My eldest sister is the 'angry' one, and of course, Futaba is a doofus." He just does her like that in the street! While in her miko outfit and all! Turning from Merelisa and Futaba to roll fliers in hand and appreciate Echolalia, Takeshi walks besides the ballcapped woman and sizes her up -- mostly up, considering Takeshi is a bit of a Short King even with what is clearly a bit of affected Big Boy height compared to Futaba. It's not much - the shapeshifter equivalant of pulling the pants up high before going into a big event, but there's an energy to it. "You're a ree-al bleedin' heart, aren't you, milady dragon?" Takeshi asks, clearly thinking quite highly of Echolalia just from his cant-over of eyelook and the faint apprehensive hook to his tone. A little overcoming of status, a tanuki speaking up to a divine dragon, that is run under by the 'mob boss in his own town' overtures the tan suited punk nuki throws. "People die in messy ways and you can't just fix that out of people, but if you make a nicer, safer place and keep a hold of the danger-" Takeshi's thumb runs along the curled-in tops of his knuckles, the claim of being the smart one backed at least by a little thoughtful philosophy. "-you can keep things real neat. And that makes a safe place, for good things." 'Son' Takeshi stops cold, no more smiling-smirking, no face-flushed mirth. His ears aren't showing but there is a visible flick-flattening of his expression. 'There's more to life than a quick buck.' "Don't talk to me like my dad." Takeshi's tone attempts flat, but is underlaid with a rolling growl. 'Don't piss on community.' Getting the papers rapped so pointedly, and ending with a pointing-down gets Takeshi smiling all-teeth, all-clenched, and eyes pointed down shut in the 'kami hold me back' type of seething exhale. "Maybe you shouldn't talk when you don't know, haah?" Punk-toned, a rising curl to his question, the hook of his question mark clacked against the ground verbally with the upcant of his chin. His eyes open. "My hon-ored and be-loved sister," Takeshi can make that sound like 'dirty' and 'stupid' on pure tone, and gets most of the way there glaring at Calvin. "-has been on that TV Ninja thing instead of her temple duties for weeks, and so now has to have everyone help her at the last minute. All that community? They already like her, but she's still not managed her time." Lifting left wrist to reveal a nice gold watch wrapped around notably darker-fuzzed forearm, wrist, and hand, Takeshi reaches a fingernail over from his right hand to tap it.
Natsuki Nuki	"What do you call-" Tak tak. "-needing to whip everyone together-" Tak tak. "-to solve your own mistake?" Takeshi ends with finger on watch. "Community? It wasn't ever like this when big sis ran things. But then she went to high school, and things slipped, and now we need. . ." A sneer up dark nosed face. "Community." Popping out his lapel and bringing back the papers he had tucked into his jacket into his hand, he pats the flyers with the back of his hand and chuckles. "This is why there's metal priests in the city, and unfinished business of the dead, and a whole mess! This is why we need a festival, to clear up all the air and motivate folks because of how things slipped." Walking off a few paces, Takeshi turns, while offering out a slightly-curled flyer to a passerby. "Picking up garbage is just the most literal way of making this work, don't you think?"
Futaba Nuki	"--a murder victim." ". . . someone they cared about or like their killer though." "Sounds like this might be a revenge ghost, then... Eesh. Those'ren ever fun to deal with." Futaba grimaces as Echolalia tells her what she was able to glean, wrinkling her nose and pursing her lips all the while. "Even if you beat 'em up, they might just keep coming back. If they can get some closure by reven... Hnn." Futaba lets out another noise at that. "Gonna have to do some digging around. Maybe figure out where else people have seen that one roaming around. Thanks for the heads up." "Last time? Huh. Didn't know you two got to meet, too." Futaba raises an eyebrow at Calvin and Takeshi seemingly knowing each other, glancing etween the two like she's hoping one of them will spill without actually having to ask. "You want any help with running it, too, you just let me know." "Iiiii hmm. Might not be a bad idea, actually..." Futaba murmurs aloud, looking like she's seriously contemplating that possibility of shirking her duties even more. A few seconds later, however, she looks straight at Takeshi like she's predicting he'll say something about that. The mischievous grin kind of gives any chance of her ploy away, though. "... Definitely won't say no to any help there, or even competing in it yourself if you're really bored. It'll mostly be runners and bicycles, though, 'cause we don't want anyone crashing and burning too hard. Can't really have a trash-cleanup festival that puts even more on the streets than we started with, you know?" "Takeshi Nuki, the smart one, at your pleasure, Lady Shaynore." Rolling her eyes a bit at Takeshi's theatrics, Futaba leans in over to Merelisa with a light nudge. "Don't mind him. He's way too into gangster movies." She says, conveniently ignoring her own dramatically flapping ninja scarf that's somehow avoided getting contaminated by all the fish this entire time. "He knows his stuff about money and managin' stuff, sure, but people?" She holds up her hand and waggles it noncommitally. "Ninja hero, huh? How's that going for you?" "Pretty awesome, I gotta say. Always learning new tricks, getting new stuff to round out the ninja resume.. The ninjres... The toolbag." Futaba replies, patting her waistband idly before realizing she doesn't actually have her ninja pouch on. She's still wearing her miko outfit, after all! "It's better than just following around watching you do the work, right?" "Hehe. I appreciate it. It's not every day the folks around here get to see..." Futaba starts to answer Merelisa, then just gestures at her, Calvin, and Echolalia before sweeping her hand around to draw attention to the fish market locals. Indeed, the group has a LOT of eyes on them, and then on the flyers as they go up and out. "If you just engaged in some real business, you could just hire some guys to put up fliers." "Pssh. You know I can't just hire presentation." She totally can, but she's still got something against actually using any of the family's resources. It's been that way for years, and it's not changing anytime soon. "It's gotta come from the heart! It's gotta be natural heart! Big and natural!" She emphasizes that by pantomiming (with only one hand) her heart beating out of her chest, although the way she moves her other hand makes it relatively clear she's really fighting the temptation to use both hands.
Futaba Nuki	"Maybe you aren't such a useless ninja baby at business!" She grins confidently towards Calvin, Echolalia, and Merelisa once again, and it only grows wider when Takeshi seems to get her plan. "Don't you know it! Besides. Everyone knows your guys already. They don't have that... SPARK to draw eyes like these folks do." A moment later, and her cheeks puff out a bit once she realizes he's taunting her. "Oi! It's community service AND spirit calmin' all at once!" Stomping over to Takeshi, Futaba goes for his cheeks to start tugging and shaking him around a little, still not quite even reaching the PG-13 slapstick violence level even with how visibly irritated she's getting. "It's called efficiency. EEF-ISH-IN-SEE! Why do a boring ol' festival and community service separately when we can do both at once?" "My eldest sister is the 'angry' one, and of course, Futaba is a doofus." "She's got reasons to be angry. I bet." Futaba goes uncharacteristically quiet for a moment as she lingers on that thought, and it might even look like she's missing the doofus comment entirely until she goes back to tugging on his face several seconds later. "Sis is the cool fashionable one, I'm the awesome heroic one, and he's the smart shmoozer one. Works out, yeah?" "Your sister understands that, which is why she's out here doing something for Sotenbori." Calvin coming to her defense has Futaba looking at him blankly at first, and then she gets a more conflicted look that lingers for quite some time. There's an appreciative undertone in the strained grin she manages, but there's definitely something off there that comes back roughly the same time that Takeshi seems to be getting riled up as well. She doesn't even have any witty retorts when he brings up the time aspect of everything that's going on. She knows full well what he means, after all, even if she has't brought it up to everyone else. Instead, she directs a sour look inwards while her sleeves conveniently keep passerbys from looking too closely at how nonplussed she is just thinking about all that. "It wasn't ever like this when big sis ran things. But then she went to high school, and things slipped . . ." "She actually wanted to run things." Futaba finally gets out after a while, still sounding almost nothing at all like her usual self. "She would've been great at it, too, but... Yeah, 'high school' really changed things." Her gaze settles back on Takeshi, not necessarily hostile but certainly not happy with something or another that she doesn't seem comfortable elaborating on. "Wasn't anything like what I ran into, but... Who knows, right?" Once again, Futaba continues to be completely unsubtle as she keeps staring right at Takeshi like... No, there's definitely something that's going on there, but it's probably not coming out without significantly more prodding. Personal business, most likely.
Echolalia	''You're a ree-al bleedin' heart, aren't you, milady dragon?'' Some of the tension in Echolalia's shoulders fades. "I...suppose? I mean, I understand that community engagement and societal change is more helpful than going out and solving one random murder, but if I run into someone who needs help, even if it's a ghost, I have to do something, you know?" She focuses on Takeshi for a momnt, frowning a little. That 'honored and beloved' sister is making her wonder about her initial impulse. She looks back to Futaba, looking her over thoughtfully. Ultimately seeing Futaba's own reaction settls something for her and she adds, "I mean there was a lot of fire but..." She brightens when Futaba...offers to help! "Hell yeah! I bet a ninja would be a lot of help." Echolalia is just glad to have any kind of local assistance. "Sure sure... If there's anything I can help with, I'd be happy to!" She says, feeling more comfortable by the moment. "Anyway, I know right now that's not why we're here but I felt it was important." ''They don't have that... SPARK to draw eyes...'' "Oh yeah. I can totally be sneaky," She says incorrectly. "But I'm definitely better at the drawing eyes than not drawing 'em." That's definitely true. A second glance and Echolalia frowns again and she kind of gets close and murmurs, "Hey, are you--is this how it normally is?" She asks, without clarifying.
Calvin Nash	Don't talk to me like my dad. Calvin lifts the bulky metal computer on his wrist, flips the screen open and taps a few keys, then makes a deliberate thwack of the enter key with his index. He then turns his palm up, in time to catch a little piece of ginger. He pops it into his mouth and chews, closing the COMP's green-on-black monitor. Maybe you shouldn't talk when you don't know, haah? "Maybe I shouldn't, if I don't," says Calvin, with now-crossed arms and the same flatness Takeshi showed earlier. "But I do know. Plenty." Chew, chew, chew. "You didn't start from time management. You started from lookin' down on it. I didn't fall off the turnip truck yesterday." Chew, chew. "But okay." He nods. "Time management." A quick smile for a passer-by and an extended flier, then a bend of the brim of his hat, then back, not to Takeshi, but to Futaba. "There's a few tricks I picked up the past few weeks, spinnin' plates between the Paladins and the Marshals. You want, between now and this festival, we can hash a few things out. Whatcha think?"
Merelisa Shaynore	"Pretty awesome, I gotta say." "It's good to always be learning. It never really stops, when you're a hero, so I hope you're ready to keep it up." Merelisa bumps Futaba's shoulder with a fist encouragingly, obviously pleased by the answer. "I've been at it for a long time, and I'm always still learning new things, both for techniques and about being a hero." After she says it, though, Merelisa has to wonder if that's really true. Sure, she's been learning about the multiverse, and about the details of the Concord and the other Elites, but has she learned anything 'about heroing'? It's not like anyone she's encountered has had any significant experience gap on her, and she doesn't feel like she's doing anything wrong. She might have just already learned everything there is to know about it-- though, at least, the former part's still true. It's always good to get stronger! "Sis is the cool fashionable one, I'm the awesome heroic one, and he's the smart shmoozer one. Works out, yeah?" "Well, it takes all kinds. Everyone's got their roles, you know, so you can't just be a hero..." ... on your own, is what she'd say, but Merelisa is doing it and it's going perfect, actually. She switches tracks instead. "Your sister helped us out with the demon last time, so I wouldn't say she's just 'fashionable'. She's totally that, though." "-has been on that TV Ninja thing instead of her temple duties for weeks, and so now has to have everyone help her at the last minute." Merelisa's eyes slant towards Futaba, fingers pinched to adjust the sunglasses on her forehead. "Uh... huh. So it's not just a festival you're throwing out of the goodness of your heart, to help with the wandering spirit problem, is it? It's your job to do stuff like this." "... It's hard, I know, to balance the exciting stuff about being a hero, with the duties you already have. It's not something you'll get right every time. I've messed up myself, plenty." Merelisa says that like it's the most world-shattering and reassuring thing in the world, as if it'd be otherwise impossible to believe that she'd ever messed up anything, much less something comparable to this level of goings-on. "But they're both worth doing, alright? We can help you this time, but you've learned that it's better to not neglect it in the future, haven't you?"
Natsuki Nuki	It's so easy for Takeshi to be cool when he's allowed to stand there and do his best Yakuza Boss from the movies and punk in the street at once. Even if he's both genuine in his tone and experienced in his actions, there's just a Feeling from having a puffed up teenager do it that is inherently ridiculous - and yet he can get there! He's almost cool! And then Futaba gets him by the cheek and his face stretches out with a whine and fighting wrestle that is at a clear type weakness to getting Ninja Face Pinched. Struggling to try and be cool while yanked to the side and under duress is nearly impossible, and the noise he makes is a whine-yip drawn out by the tug and the force with which the Nukis get at each otehr. "Wude!" The cheek-tugged little puffed up punk complains when he's released, tugging out his coat and trying very hard to resume his previous endearing sleaze with a rudolph red cheek. Echolalia's hope isn't one Takeshi particularly wants to turn away and he read her intent clearly when she explains her motive. To be offered help from a divine dragon is something that the youngest Nuki by-default wants to cherish -- even if it's a divine dragon from a different city or heaven. He's just, also, dealing with familial issues as the youngest of three. "Nothing wrong with cleaning a mess the right way, my lady, nothing wrong with that, but still, it's a problem of scale, not a problem deserving scales - if you catch my mean-ing." Takeshi emphasizes by rubbing palm to handback. "And I'd not say leave a mess when you've a mind to fix the spot-" "-in fact, it'd be much appreciated if you'd uncurse that particular haunt!" Takeshi lets slip, a faint 'ehe' in soft admittance. "I might have a lead on the source of the haunt, seeing as it's rather obvious, so if my won-derful sister has a whole gang together to help you can make the city nicer in the direct way." The youngest brother sweeps into a chummy shrug. "Who am I to push away a ninja warrior and her companions?" Asks someone who for the entirety of season one sent assassins and lieutenants at his sister for what she wanted to do. Now, in seasons beyond, he asks crap like that with a throbbing-cheeked smugness.
Natsuki Nuki	'You didn't start from time management.' Rolling his eyes, Takeshi waves over a guy in a suit with a three-dot leaf pin on his lapel and sunglasses on from the street corner, jamming the rest of his flyer into the clear Takeshi Clan goon's chest and shoving them away with a dismissive gesture a 'figure it out' harrumph. The goon looks down at the fliers and, with some experience in such hijinks, deflates and heads to deploy them among the gang dutifully at a mosey-walk. Takeshi pops his foreknuckle with a thumb. "It started today, haah?" Again, Takeshi's questionhooks rise in punk-hooked marks. "I'm saying it started weeks ago," A tisking click of the tongue. "Does-Know-Plenty-sensei. Nah, not yesterday, sensei, you've had time to age." 'so I wouldn't say she's just 'fashionable'' "Big sis went to Tokyo and came back with a fierce fashion, that's right. Since Futaba was supposed to take over. That was the root of this - why even I have had to become an honest tanuki." He says it like a terrible curse has befallen the mischief-trickster raccoon-dog for such a turn of fate. Head bowed, Takeshi heaves a big defeated sigh. "It'd be nice to have all the problem spots of Sotenbori cleaned out again. It's not like big sis is going to want to help. All she wants is a rematch with dad." Takeshi sleazes up to Futaba. "Think he'll show up to the festival? Hoping he will?" A dull red-cheeked grin spreads across his teeth. "Or, hoping he won't?"
Futaba Nuki	"Hell yeah! I bet a ninja would be a lot of help." Futaba perks back up a bit at Echolalia's open encouragement, even if it is about the topic of tracking down a potentially murderous revenge ghost. "Just gotta think like a ghost, and ninjas gotta be able to do that to be proper ninjas." She even breaks into a small grin, starting to find her footing again. "I mean, not that I'd do that kinda sneaky stuff normally, but still." "But I'm definitely better at the drawing eyes than not drawing 'em." That, meanwhile, gets a directly approving nod of approval from the 'ninja' hero. "Knew I had a good feeling about you! Heh. We'll be workin' together plenty going forward, for sure." Futaba confirms with another nod, then gets the last flyer in her stack up before leaning over to listen a little more closely. She pauses to think for a few seconds before shaking her head. "Not even close. Too much goin' on all at once with the spirits, the Metal Priests, all..." Another pause, to gesture vaguely at Takeshi and then off in the distance somewhere. "... All of this. Nothing you gotta worry yourself about, though, because-" And then she forces a grin,smacking her chest lightly through her kosode. "Heroes usually figure this kind of thing out by the time it all wraps up, you know?" "You want, between now and this festival, we can hash a few things out. Whatcha think?" Calvin's continued offers of assistance, too, help keep that smile on Futaba's face even if it's still nothing like the carefree ones from earlier. "You know it. I mean, I dunno if it's time management bein' the issue here so much as..." Already, she's grimacing a little inside, but she sucks it up. She's not about to take Calvin's assistance for granted, after all. "Yeah, Let's.. I'll be ready whenever you are for all that. Thanks, man. Don't be a stranger if anything comes up with you and the Marshals, either! Some of those folks other than there were pretty okay." ". . . hope you're ready to keep it up." "You know it!" Futaba says, then pauses at realizing she already said that exact phrase seconds ago. "Can't be a right and proper hero if I just settle for doing the same thing day in and day out. That's more of a... Royal thing, like managing the clan and all that stuff." Your sister helped us out with the demon last time, so I wouldn't say she's just 'fashionable'. "Oh, definitely not. 'Cool' is doing the real heavy lifting there." Futaba clarifies, laughing and letting that linger for a moment as the distant look comes back to her face. "Yeah... Even though she's real different now than before, some things ain't ever gonna change." She laughs loudly at first, then trails off again as more of that time distance starts becoming apparent to Futaba just looking at her face.
Futaba Nuki	"It's your job . . ." "I've messed up myself, plenty." ". . . it's better to not neglect it in the future" That distant look continues to grow, and Futaba's shoulders slump a bit more like someone who totally understands and just doesn't want to admit. "I knooow... Nn. Not like everything's going anywhere anytime soon. Worst case scenario, I'd put money on Takeshi being able to handle this stuff just fine. But..." The dsitant look returns, and Futaba actually lets out a distasteful noise. "... Lot of things could've been handled better if things were done different before. But.. Yeah, might as well get the work over with earlier. Then I can get into the stuff I really want to do, right?" Somehow, that small admission still feels bigger in Futaba's head than it really is. There's definitely something going on there that Futaba isn't speaking of, although the way she's speaking with Takeshi and the things he says could very well say more than she ever could. "I'd not say leave a mess when you've a mind to fix the spot-" "-in fact, it'd be much appreciated if you'd uncurse that particular haunt!" After starting to sink into something unpleasant for far too long, it's that line that gets Futaba groaning animatedly again. "Oh, come ooooon. Nobody's gonna..." She trails off and drags her palm over her face, shaking a bit like she's trying not to laugh despite herself. "That lead... Hmm. Couldn't hurt to look, for sure. If we can get it cleared out before the Metal Priests make things worse, we might not even have to worry about something like that bridge incident comin' up again." By the time she finishes drawing her hand over her face, Futaba really looks like she's got a long face as she stares right at Takeshi. "Who indeed, bruh? Bruh, answer meeee." Her expression hasn't changed, either, so she's really trying to get him to break character by looking like someone just grabbed the bottom edge of her face and dragged it down without scaling anything else properly. "That was the root of this - why even I have had to become an honest tanuki." "Think he'll show up to the festival? Hoping he will? Or, hoping he won't?" "Honest? Where?" Futaba flashes Takeshi a shit-eating grin, then lets out a long, soul-escaping exhale at the questions. "... He will, because it's me. He always will." Futaba doesn't sound thrilled in the slightest saying that. The actual answer's not that new coming from Futaba, but even her younger brother can notice the difference from how much more (relatively) animated the answer would normally be just before Natsuki's return to town. With everyone's assistance, the flyers get passed out and pasted up easily enough, and the first stack is finished before the fish smell can really seep into everyone's clothes. Looking satisfied enough (notwithstanding that tension), Futaba "Phew.. Good work, folks. Anyway. Work's done here, and I can take care of the last batch on the way back. If you're hungry, though, I could show you around some of my favorite haunts!" Futaba offers as she just starts walking backwards back out of the fish market, not even glancing behind herself while navigating around like she's a pro at this. Judging from the tension on the fishmongers' faces as she's doing that, she has probably done this several times before and failed spectacularly at it.