[OPEN] fastforwarded to december 1. open house!!

[overstrain]

[ On December 1st, Hirajiro's residential district goes through a minor change, which is having Terry's two-story house appear right next to the Black Cat house. With Orien's help, Terry bought the land that the house sits on. Anyway, the house has two floors. The entire first floor has a living room, kitchen, and a bathroom with sink, toilet, and shower. When you climb up the stairs, you'll reach the second floor, which has four bedrooms with a bathroom connecting two bedrooms together. The bathrooms can be locked from the inside only. There is no master bedroom nor bathroom in this house. One of the rooms are soundproof, but Terry is not telling anyone which one it is. You'll have to find that out for yourself. AC and heater are fully functional.

Terry sent out a message to all the Guests. For those who don't have phones, Orien personally delivered the message to those people himself. The message is as follows:

We solved the housing situation. Terry will not ask anyone to pay rent, but the house isn't furnished at all except for a refrigerator and a fireplace. You'll have to buy supplies and furniture on your own. There are several conditions you need to accept if you choose to live here:

1) Please do not destroy the house or cause property damage. If you do, you're paying for the damages.
2) Clean up after yourselves. A clean house means no bugs and good standard of living.
3) Do not steal/take anything from the Black Cat house. (this needs to be mentioned because he had several door stealing incidents)

The address/general directions to the location has been mentioned, which is basically next door to the Black Cat house.

Feel free to make your own top levels and stuff. ]

Comments

[reveilation]

[ It's not like Kido can say anything about picking fights when she's sort of like that too, but she doesn't throw punches unless it's... Terry... She's not worried about Akira or Red, and hopefully they'll keep Jiro from bullying Sasuke, though she can't see that happening either since he's quiet and inoffensive.

She's more interested in cats, honestly. ]

What happened to Rago? Bring him back.

[cicadashell]

Oi! Get back out here, furball!

[And nothing happens. Jiro shrugs.]

He does what he wants. He's probably taking a nap.

[reveilation]

Hey, be nice to him!

[ She'll take the cat's side over his, even if Rago's a fake cat. But since he's not here anymore, she gets back onto her feet so her legs don't fall asleep under her. ]

But if he's not a cat, what is he? Is he like Priam and goes back there [ She nods her chin towards his chest ] when he disappears like that?

[cicadashell]

I don't control him, and he's not part of me or from me, like Priam. But yeah, he... lives there...

[Jiro's just going to be straightforward here, and hope people aren't as judgemental about demons in this place. Which is why he'd been curious about Minato and Souji and harping on the demonic rituals thing. Apparently, demons are... okay, and that's new.]

Rago's a demon. I'm possessed- shut up! Fine! Mononoke. He's a mononoke.

[And not taking a nap as expected.]

It's the same fucking thing and nobody knows what that means here...

[reveilation]

[ Kido raises an eyebrow at Jiro apparently talking to Rago from inside or whatever. It'll be easier for her if she just thinks of him like Priam or other Personas who slip in and out of people's shadows. Demons and mononoke are also sort of the same thing as far as she's concerned, but... she looks down at the ground for a moment, and then up at Jiro. ]

Did you get possessed because you're weak, or because you're dead? Or both.

[cicadashell]

[Both.]

Dead. I found Rago in the woods by my house, and he was hurt, so I took him home. Then some mononoke showed up to take him and I fought the thing...

[With his grandfather's sword that he hadn't ever used before, because he's an idiot.]

This thing was fucking huge, and it stabbed me in the back with a claw-

[Rago chooses that moment to reappear, sitting on Jiro's head because he knows Jiro hates that.]

"I made a mistake."

Shut the fuck up.

[reveilation]

[ Kido looks up in surprise when Rago suddenly appears at that, perched on Jiro's head, and she smiles a little. ]

You possessed him and saved him, Rago. That's what it sounds like. There's no way that's a mistake.

[ Ppppprobably? She'd like to think so, believing that ever life is precious and if being possessed by a demon is how Jiro got to stick around, that's a good thing. It's not too different from her own situation, aside from the fact that she sort of scorned being alive for a while. Jiro doesn't seem to have that problem, though. ]

[cicadashell]

[That's exactly why he did it. Rago's just the surly sort.] I supposed it worked out in the end. Do you have any tuna?

[reveilation]

[ Not a cat but he still likes tuna. That's cute. ]

This place is sparse in terms of... everything... but there's food next door where I live. I'm not sure about tuna specifically, but there's probably some sort of fish in the fridge, and we have cat food.

[ Do mononokes eat cat food? Do mononokes even need food... ]

[cicadashell]

[He's eaten cat food once, and it was disgusting.]

"Fish!"

[Mononoke generally eat humans, Rago doesn't need to. But he likes fish. He leaps off Jiro's head and intends to go find the fish next door, floating above the throng of cats and out the conveniently open door. Jiro just watches, wondering how he's going to get the refrigerator open, but whatever. Not his problem.]

Which room's mine?

[reveilation]

[ Kido assumes Rago is like the old Nekogami who can phase through walls and materialize inside of the fridge, so she doesn't worry about it too much. Since he's a cat, sort of, she'll allow him to raid their fridge. ]

That's probably something you'll have to talk to the others about, but since you're here first, you might as well get dibs. Looks like there's four bedrooms, and even if you have your own room, you have to share a bathroom with whoever's room is next to yours.

[ She's not sure all of who's going to live here. Red, Akira, and Sasuke for sure she remembers from the meeting, and Toki's going to stay with her and Terry. 45 and Rio decided to remain in the Velvet Room as far as Kido knows, since she didn't have much luck convincing either of them back then, and then Seto's just arrived recently and will probably stay here too, even if Kido wants to live with him again. ]

Red and Akira are fine living together, so the numbers would work out for singles, right now.

[cicadashell]

Okay.

[He'll drop his meager possessions off in the first room he comes to because he doesn't care which one, or about the views.]

[reveilation]

If you haven't met him already, Seto's a guy I grew up with, and I bet he'd love to meet Rago. You'd all better be nice to him, or you have me to answer to.

[ She's the sister, so only she can bully Seto, etc etc ]

[cicadashell]

I met him. Cricket guy.

[We'll even say he knows Seto's name by this point.]

He came from your world?

[reveilation]

Cricket guy...

[ Those crickets had better be gone, or Kido's not letting him in the house. She makes a note to check on him after talking to Jiro. ]

Yeah, we met when we were kids, and have been living together since. You probably saw him in the dungeon earlier in the month... it was the very last memory I had, when we were running through the school from the guy with the gun. Seto was there too, in that room.

[cicadashell]

[Jiro doesn't recognize him as any of the kids in that classroom, but he hadn't really taken a good look.]

Did he die too, then?

[He's starting to wonder if everyone died; and that's the commonality between them all coming here.]

[reveilation]

[ She wouldn't have been able to answer before, but she knows now who survived and who didn't. ]

He made it out alive. Out of the nine of us, six died, and three made it out. That's honestly more than what I'd thought it would be.

[cicadashell]

[Theory debunked. He wants to say something like "I'm glad you get to see him again", but there are other people in the house.]

I'll keep an eye on him.

[Which means nothing, since he's only proven himself to be relatively useless so far.]

[reveilation]

[ He can still say it, and people keeping an eye on Seto is something Kido still appreciates, no matter how good they are at that sort of thing. ]

He's reasonable and level headed, so he shouldn't be too much trouble. Just, uh... don't think too much about it if you see his eyes turning red or he's out there talking to animals. He likes them.

[cicadashell]

Like yours?

[Did Kido and Seto get some kind of eye powers from the same thing?]

Can he actually communicate with the animals?

[Because that's another thing that's started working for Jiro again, and it would be interesting.]

[reveilation]

Yeah, the same way mine turns red. Seto can understand animals, but it's doesn't work the other way around. He can talk back all he wants, but if the animal doesn't understand human speech, then it's not much of a conversation.

[ She shrugs, because he seems to get along with them well enough anyways. There's a little more to his ability, but she'll let Seto tell Jiro that, since it's like Terry's pinpointing thing where people are automatically defensive about having their mind read. ]

[cicadashell]

They understand me. Animals.

[He's talking more about himself than he has since he's been here, but it's still impersonal for the most part. Facts. People might as well know since he'd told at least Rei and 45 when they were... children. Ugh. That day.]

I hadn't been able to do it here, but it's working again now.

[Seto showing up around the same time with similar abilities is probably a coincidence, but maybe not.]

We should interrogate the crows.

[reveilation]

[ Kid day was fake. She didn't beat Jiro up and then started crying so hard that he ditched her. That didn't happen. ]

Oh, so you're like Seto, but better.

[ Sorry, Seto. ]

I think it'd be worth giving it a try, and hopefully they aren't sort of... off... in the way some of the people around town are. You know how they sort of brush things off and avoid certain topics. What should we ask the crows?

[cicadashell]

So it's not just me. You can't fucking talk to anyone in town. It's like they don't even listen to you half the time.

[His conversations with crows usually involved bribing them with food.]

I dunno about the crows yet. If they're working for the Kotengu, bringing things from the shrine wishes or whatever, they might relay anything we ask if it isn't already watching everything.

[They need more of a plan than Jiro's usual "just ask the question directly".]

[reveilation]

[ Yeah, people are frustrating. Kido only really gets along with two elementary school kids, and it seems like in general, the kids are more receptive to talking than the adults. ]

We can hope the crows are chatty and tell us stuff without asking too much... Would it be that bad if the Kotengu knows we're asking about him? He's got to know we'd ask as soon as you have that power back, and he's the one who was holding it.