WELCOME TO KANSAI

[akudamods]

Where are you? When are you? According to the smoggy sky above you, "noon" is a reasonable guess. You are in Dotonbori, though it may seem unwise to get closer to the bridge over the river or any iconic signs. Wandering past this single city block will be met by police robots, stopping your way with a hologram that claims you are on "probation" and will soon be given a "briefing", that the next robot scans and copies. There are human citizens in this area, at first simply stunned by your arrival and appearance. Over the minutes, though, they notice the information circulating on all sorts of holographic surfaces, and they begin chattering suspiciously about you.

The holographic surfaces aren't the only bright light in the city. You also find yourself experiencing glitches multiple times over these first few hours - parts of your body temporarily turning into bursts of color along with a burst of intense pain, or briefly losing awareness of yourself and coming back into focus a good few centimeters to the left, making an agonizing adjustment to sensory non-deprivation all over again. The other "Akudama" seem to be undergoing the same phenomenon of inexplicable sudden little changes in location. Akudama - that's what the citizens are calling you under their breath from the other side of the narrow alley street.

Want to bum a cigarette regardless? Hide in a karaoke booth and scream? Hey, you do you, buddy. Looks like nobody is coming to give you trouble just yet, unless you make it yourself. Maybe those "Gifts" some of you have will make sparks fly.

Comments

[thefifthchild]

Do you always act solely in the interest of what's socially expected? You must be very dull.

[Time for full bullying. Technically in the society he came from, proficiency in murder is a skill to be admired. But the society he's in now is a bit less murder-happy. Though it's not uncommon to see people dressing up as Harley Quinn for Halloween, so it's not too anti-murder apparently.]

It's not as if there's any use in hiding it. It's all public information now.

[fullswingkiss]

[ Ainosuke isn't easily bullyable and does not seem particularly fazed by being called boring. He knows best of all that his day to day facade is a joke compared to what he actually has to offer, but it is a joke the whole world will laugh along to. ]

You call it dull, I call it being a grown-up. For better and for worse.

[thefifthchild]

[His father is a grown man who dresses like a bat and beats the shit out of criminals, and his mother is... well, actually just a regular extremist but still. The idea that growing up means being normal is very strange to him.]

I find that most people who cater entirely to what's expected of them have skeletons in their closet, or they're just a powder keg waiting to blow up. But your criminal record is hardly anything exciting.

[fullswingkiss]

My accusations are certainly small fry compared to what everyone else allegedly did. I appear to be one of three people here who have never been accused of taking a life and one of the others is an 11 year old child.

[ He's... unwisely kind of intrigued by this but the part of him that's actually a normal man is dead inside and maybe a little more scared than he wants to admit. ]

What was anybody thinking, putting me here?

[thefifthchild]

[He snickers.] If it helps, most of the crimes mentioned on my profile happened before I turned ten. [Absolutely does not help.]

People can be guilty of only small crimes, and still be deeply terrible people all the same.

[fullswingkiss]

Don't you know it.

[ Just leaving entirely open if he means himself or other people. He doesn't think it matters anyway. ]

Your upbringing must have been... quite something.

[thefifthchild]

[He shrugs, nonchalant.]

My grandfather is a monster. [A beat.] Both of them. But the maternal one is the one who raised me.