text | un: suohtamaki

[vanity]

good afternoon to everyone! ┌(＾＾)┘ i have a few simple question points i'd like to discuss today. this current home base is much more familiar territory to me compared to my previous kidnaping destination, but! I REFUSE TO FALL INTO THE DEPTHS OF COMPLACENCY!

i notice there are quite a few fellow japanese here, some who are much more culturally acquainted to their roots than i. so i'd like to continue my studies and ask about the following:

- japanese vending machines. i've heard the most audacious things can be found within their cheap plexiglass walls! (;;;*_*)

- japanese baths!! i would LOVE to hear more about this. does the communal experience serve the purpose of bonding with one another? would you say that this could be a family activity?

- have you ever been to karaoke? (´• ω •`)ﾉ please tell me about the experience! (is there a karaoke bar here? one should be made if not!)

- the rapid transit system. have you ever used it? how often? how does it truly feel to be cramped in such a confined space?

- how would you describe the taste of taiyaki? the texture? are the ingredients required to make it available here?

any and all information is appreciated. and if it's possible to recreate any of the above here, i'm set on making it a reality!

Comments

[intrapid]

It's an everyman experience you definitely don't want to pass up!
For full effect, the debt should last several years and steadily get worse before resolving, and I can facilitate that.
We'll start with the 1000G, and who knows, maybe some of your wares can help pay it off in the future.
You're going to need a better pitch for the bottled tea, though, especially against the option of freshly brewed tea.

[vanity]

while i have never personally been in debt, i have a good friend who manages the debts of others so i'm more than aware of how painful the process is.

❰ he lacks any and all self-awareness of how insidious this sounds. ❱

i too appreciate fresh brewed tea over anything that might be bottled, but i've garnered a soft spot for what the everyman seems to think is a respectable bottled version. it's incredibly devisive among people, but also easy to alchemize.

regardless, if you'd like some strange watermelon concoction on the house, i am indeed your man!

[intrapid]

[ Hm. Karma needs to figure out which of Tamaki's 50 friends is a LOAN SHARK ]

If it's on the house, who I am to say no?
I'll take one strange watermelon concoction and one alchemized bottled tea, and drop your payment down to 998G.
Let me know when you have a time and place to meet up!

[vanity]

❰ thankfully it's not hard to suss him out. not so thankfully, karma is going to be inducted into the arizona tea cult. ❱

you have a deal!

i'm free basically any time! there's a little outpost close to the edge of brocéliande that's easy to find.

[intrapid]

[ Arizona tea......... ]

LOL so idle~
Then, I'm coming over to play now!
You'd better be there!

[vanity]

❰ don't ask any questions.....

in lieu of answer, tamaki is at the meeting spot within a 10 minutes. he does not come empty handed, quite literally. the 1000G are in his pocket, but in each hand is a container: one surprisingly like a fishbowl, though a touch smaller; the other is a brandy glass. the former contains a very thin liquid with a yellow tinge, while the other holds something a bit darker in colour.

they may be poison, roll the dice. ❱

[intrapid]

[ Karma takes a bit longer to get there, not exactly rushing to meet Tamaki and besides, there's a lot to learn of watching a person wait around. Apparently what Tamaki does is prepare the promised drinks, and... maybe Karma should have given him some extra time to find proper glasses? ]

Hi! Is this supposed to be the watermelon?

[ He points at the brandy glass. Completely ignores the fishbowl, it does not exist. ]

[vanity]

❰ he's broke, and he has learned from haruhi that the poor don't have matching sets of glasses...well, he's gone a step further and is too broke to own drinkware at all. unless karma wants a reused 20oz can.

tamaki supposes that this is the man he's struck a deal with, seemingly knowing the contents of their conversation. someone more keen might have considered it's a public forum where anyone can see the details of their exchange. that same keen person might then consider that who else would be interested in this kind of thing. ❱

Oh, hello! ❰ typically he'd bow or offer a handshake, but. well. ❱ The darker one, yes. It's not completely alchemized in creation. I have a surplus of the extract that was brought here with me. I do warn you, it tastes nothing like a watermelon. It's a feature of the appeal!

❰ many questions beg to be asked. ❱

[intrapid]

[ If cognitive magic could be used to read minds, Karma would put Tamaki fifty feet under the ground for purposely not matching glasses. He doesn't relieve Tamaki of the watermelon or the tea, choosing instead to peer intently at the drinks and let Tamaki keep holding the cups up. ]

Heh... So, what, it's just watermelon by name? [ Doesn't taste like it, doesn't look like it, this drink is a bare faced lie. ]

Can I see the "extract"?

[ Just... mentally putting quotes around that word. ]

[vanity]

❰ that's exactly right, karma. ❱

Essentially. This is a recreation of a laymen's drink I discovered in my previous world. It's called a watermelon drink, and in its original form even has the solid red colour. And yet upon consumption, it tastes nothing at all like a watermelon.

This is the sad truth of many working class commodities. They imitate flavors they've experienced elsewhere but that may be too expensive or limited in number to consume all the time. ❰ this is truly his fascination with these drinks. he doesn't even drink them most of the time. just taste tests, cries and respects the grind. ❱ I've got half a case left back at my room. You're free to come look if you'd like.

❰ and then ponder why a flat of these was one of his personal items. ❱

[intrapid]

So sad for them. But yeah, I'd like to see!

[ Still doesn't take either of the drinks. Maybe if Tamaki has a table or counter somewhere in his room, he can let his arms rest then. ]

You said you came from a "previous world", or something?

[ There's a lot to say and it's easy to move on, but he refuses to let go of this one throwaway comment. This little dissertation about laymen's drinks is less interesting to him; he's drank these sorts of things, has questioned the legitimacy of watermelon flavoring in things lacking the fruit in the ingredients but making it up in food coloring instead, and seriously doubts that watermelon has become such a hot commodity that it's become unaffordable. ]

[vanity]

❰ fortunately, tamaki is a young man of great stamina! he shall hold these vessels of liquid like a totem, like a monk grasping for enlightenment. ❱

Oh, yes -- that's probably confusing for the uninitiated. I was originally residing in Japan in the 2000s, but then was abducted by aliens to this ridiculously garish planet of torment and tortures. ❰ speaking of that liquid, his hands being encumbered doesn't keep him from gesturing through the sentences, with his whole body to boot. and with the agility to not let a drop spill! ❱ After some odd months on that planet, I found myself whisked into this world. I'll admit, while I would prefer to be back where I belong, I find Camelot to be the preferable of the two...otherworldly options.

❰ tamaki is an open book in many cases, very accustomed to rambling on about things related to him. thus, a leaky sieve when it comes to information. albeit, superfluous information a lot of the time. ❱

[intrapid]

...Have you drank any of the two drinks you're holding?

[ Have they perhaps gone bad? Fermented to the point they make people speak nonsense like this? Karma really wants a bottle of each now, but not to drink. ]

I guess, compared to hell, this place isn't so bad. There's freedom to do whatever, at least.

[vanity]

Of course. I wouldn't offer anyone something I wasn't comfortable consuming myself!

❰ they aren't that awful!!! just very...flavoured iced tea tasting. sans the ice. ❱

No, I certainly wouldn't compare it to hell by any means. I will say that finding ways to make money here is much more complicated.

❰ not that he was that well off in prisma's touch-based economy either...but the concept itself was a lot more conducive to making money easily. here he has to...work. ❱

[intrapid]

[ Not knowing Tamaki's tastes— aside from that they're questionable at best— it's not much of a comfort. But Karma finally relieves him of the drinks, taking one at a time and pouring them into what looks like empty potion bottles and corking them before handing back the empty cups. ]

Outside of the usual businesses, the economy's simpler than others, though: fee-for-service, and you don't even need credentials. Like that, even a kid like me can keep myself clothed and fed and with enough pocket money to have some fun.

[ A child can do quests! all that matters are results, and Karma thrives off work that only cares of results and leaves the process to him. ]